Dad breaks wife’s jaw after ‘losing it’ during row over dog’s dinner but avoids jail

A dad broke his wife’s jaw during a row over the dog’s dinner.

Patrick Coleman, 47, “lost it” in an argument and attacked Jaqueline Coleman until she was rescued by a neighbour.

She was so badly injured she needed surgery to insert a metal plate and screws in her face, the Liverpool Echo reports.

But he was spared jail after she told a judge it would hurt her family financially and cost her sons their home if he went to prison.

Liverpool Crown Court heard he was being “aggressive” in their living room in St Helens, Merseyside on October 10 last year.

Judge David Aubrey said the argument “appears to have related to the family dog” and how it was “either eating or not eating his or her meal” when he “lost it”.

He told Coleman “the red mist descended” and “it was the first occasion that you had ever laid a finger on your wife”.

The judge said if there had been “any suggestion of prior domestic violence” he would have been jailed.

Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, said Coleman shoved his wife backwards, who pushed him back, before he punched her in the left side of her jaw.

He grabbed her and threw her onto the stairs, before “constantly punching her to the face and the body”.

He pushed her onto a sofa and put his hands around her neck, but “thankfully” a neighbour rushed inside and stopped the violence.

Mrs Coleman went to hospital two days later and had her jaw moved back into the correct position, with a titanium plate and four screws inserted.

Coleman told police “it was my fault” when arrested.

He admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and was handed a 12-month suspended sentence.

In a victim statement, Mrs Coleman said he had never previously been violent during their 26-year relationship.

She said she was concerned about the future, had debts and a mortgage that she couldn’t afford to pay on her own, and worried about the impact on her sons.

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If he was jailed and not able to help with caring responsibilities she might also lose her job, she added.

Mrs Coleman said: “I worry this will feel like we’ve been punished more than Patrick.”

Charles Lander, defending, said Coleman had lost his home and “the love of his wife”.

Coleman wanted to “reunite” with his family “if they would want to be reunited with him”, he added.

He said Coleman, who was living in a rented bedsit but also paying towards his mortgage, had mental health issues and was drinking before the attack.

His wife didn’t want to support a prosecution, the court heard.