AN alcoholic who carried out a “revolting” assault on his wife has walked free from court with a suspended sentence.

Richard Beauchamp attacked his wife Sharon at the family home in Church Lane, Cotheridge, near Worcester.

Beauchamp admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared before the city’s magistrates.

Liam Finch, prosecuting, said: “This was a disgraceful, disgusting, highly depressing and humiliating assault.” The court was told how Beauchamp, a service engineer for mobility equipment, drank cider and a bottle of red wine without eating anything when he got home from work on Tuesday, October 6.

Mr Finch said Mrs Beauchamp went up to bed early that night but heard her husband of six years shout aggressively for her to get downstairs or “face the consequences”.

In a statement read out to court, Mrs Beauchamp said her husband had pulled the bedcovers away from her and stuffed his soiled underwear into her mouth.

“I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “It was disgusting.”

Mr Finch said Mrs Beauchamp tried to push her 40-year-old husband away and tried to call for help using her mobile phone.

But Beauchamp snatched it away from her and pushed her into the bath.

In Mrs Beauchamp’s statement she said: “I panicked and couldn’t breathe. I started to scream very loudly.”

Her son Mark heard her screams from next door where he was with his girlfriend and called the police.

Sarah Brady, defending, admitted that the assault, in which Mrs Beauchamp suffered a cut lip, was “revolting and very unpleasant”.

Mrs Brady said she was surprised that Mrs Beauchamp had indicated she would like to give their marriage another go. In the letter read out to court Mrs Beauchamp, a carer, said: “I feel I want to try and work things out between us.

“Three weeks in prison will be and has been enough to make him realise what he has done he can never do again.” As a result, magistrates decided to release Beauchamp with a 16-week prison sentence suspended for two years. He will have to undertake a supervision requirement aimed at tackling his drinking and violent behaviour during that time.

Beauchamp was also made to pay £85 court costs. There was no order for compensation.