A TRAVELLER punched a woman as she sat in her car after she found out she had been having an affair with her husband.

Jane Rippard suffered ‘redness and soreness’ to her cheek, bruising to her eye, a scratched neck and a cut finger after she was punched ‘three or four times’ in the face by Diane Johns.

Johns, aged 33, of The Caravan, Hinton-on-the-Green, Evesham, admitted the battery charge at Worcester Magistrates Court.

Dawn Cooper, prosecuting, said the pair had a ‘volatile relationship’ which came to a head outside the Spar shop in Mayfair, Evesham, when Johns spotted Miss Rippard in a parked car on Thursday, June 5.

The court heard how Miss Rippard had been having an affair with Johns’ husband for the last five years and Johns became aware of her husband’s infidelity about two years ago.

The couple are now in the middle of a divorce while Miss Rippard is six months pregnant with his child.

Her husband now has a new partner.

Susie Duncan, defending, said: “Diane Johns thought the complainant was pulling faces at her. She says there was abuse from both parties.

"She says the complainant called her ‘a dirty gipsy’. She’s a traveller and she took great offence at this.

"She saw red and accepts she punched the lady three or four times to the face while she was sitting in her car. She accepts it was an over-reaction and she shouldn’t have done it.”

Mrs Duncan said Johns, a mother-of-three, suffers from depression and receives £814 a month in child and incapacity benefits although she is hoping to attend a hair and beauty course and get back into work.

Mrs Duncan asked for credit to be given to Johns for her early guilty plea.

Magistrates fined Johns £65, ordered her to pay £50 in compensation, a £15 victim surcharge and £60 costs.