AN ANGRY husband carried out a prolonged attack on his wife – strangling her, pulling out a clump of her hair and attempting to push her down the stairs – before taking an overdose and spending the night in hospital.
Lindsay Thorpe (43) assaulted his wife Heidi after they had been to a party together on New Year’s Eve.
Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, said Thorpe was talking to a couple at a community centre and Mrs Thorpe came up and introduced herself.
Thorpe appeared aggrieved, walked away and left the centre.
Thorpe was in bed but not asleep when Mrs Thorpe got home.
Miss Ritson said Mrs Thorpe admits she was angry and slapped Thorpe on the bottom a couple of times.
He sat up, punched her in the face and then took her to the floor before holding her by the throat and strangling her.
Miss Ritson said Mrs Thorpe passed out but didn’t know for how long.
Thorpe then repeated an earlier comment, alleging Mrs Thorpe had accused him of having an affair which she denied saying.
Miss Ritson said Thorpe grabbed his wife by the hair, pulling a clump out, and followed her to the bathroom and forcibly banged the back of her head against the wall four or five times.
Thorpe then attempted to push his wife down the stairs but she managed to get her bottom on to the stairs to avoid falling and was then punched or kicked.
Miss Ritson said Thorpe warned his wife she had three minutes to get out of the house.
She went outside but came back again because she had nowhere to go and Thorpe then referred to his Prozac pills, saying he had taken “the lot”.
Solicitor Daven Naghen, mitigating, said: “He made a genuine suicide attempt and had to be kept in hospital and detained overnight. He was on a drip for a number of hours.”
Mr Naghen said Mrs Thorpe accepted she was the one to have started things by slapping her husband on the bottom but Thorpe equally accepted that was the catalyst “for him to overreact”.
Mr Naghen said Thorpe does now realise the relationship is at an end.
The solicitor said: “He has come to the conclusion that this relationship isn’t working – it’s making them both feel pretty horrible and they ought to go their separate ways.”
Thorpe, formerly of Fen Road, Holbeach, and currently living at Holbeach St Johns, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating.
Magistrates adjourned sentence to February 9 for a probation report and granted him conditional bail.