A LORRY driver who attacked his cheating wife after 34 years of marriage has escaped a prison sentence.

Robert Baker gripped her around the throat, making it difficult to breathe, and warned: "If I can't have you, no one else will," Worcester Crown Court heard.

He struck her a number of blows to the face and head before she managed to flee from the couple's home in Stoney Lane, Kidderminster.

The defendant lost control after he suspected his wife June, a book-keeper, had been having a romance with her landscaper boss, said Guy Spollon, prosecuting.

Baker, aged 52, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm. He had originally been charged with attempted murder but was given a not guilty verdict on the more serious accusation.

Deputy Judge Thomas Dillon QC sentenced him to a two-year community rehabilitatiion order on condition he attend a six-month probation course on domestic violence.

He told Baker that such a serious attack normally led to a jail sentence but it was "a tragic case" for a man of good character.

Following months of marriage problems, Mrs Baker was dropped off from work by her boss in Broad Street, Kidderminster, on February 26, where her husband was waiting for her, said Mr Spollon.

A heated row broke out in the early hours while the couple were in bed. Baker accused his wife of adultery and said he was driving to Stourport-on-Severn to sort out her boss.

Mrs Baker, an asthmatic, suffered a black eye in the violence which followed. She managed to escape from the house after asking for a glass of water.

"There is no greater provocation for a man to find out his wife is having an affair," said defence counsel Andrew Baker.

But he said she went further by running up debts of £15,000 on two credit cards to finance her employer.

Mr Baker said it was most unlikely that the defendant would ever appear in a court again. His wife had written "telling letters" to the judge. She was anxious to understand the way her husband had behaved.