A woman feared she would be killed by her husband when he attacked her after seeing a birthday greeting on her phone.

Thomas John Perry, of Vaynor Road, Milford Haven, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared at Haverfordwest magistrates court on Wednesday, August 28.

Vaughan Pritchard-Jones, prosecuting, said Perry pulled his wife off the sofa by her hair and shouted at her, when became annoyed after finding a birthday greeting from another man on her phone on April 24.

Mr Pritchard-Jones said: “She says he punched her numerous times. There was blow after blow. She ended up on the floor and he then kicked her.

“He grabbed her and pulled her back onto the sofa, grabbed her around the neck and shouted ‘I said I would kill you if it happened again’.”

The woman stated she was terrified and unable to breath.

Perry, 27, let go, but grabbed her phone to stop her from calling the police.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said: “I feel very upset and hurt, like my world has been flipped upside down.

“It was completely unexpected. I was fast asleep, for him to attack me like that, I stood no chance.”

She added her children who were upstairs at the time, had been upset by the incident.

“I have been with him for nearly eight years, I never thought that he was capable of this.”

Pictures of the woman’s bruised face and ribs were shown to the court.

Mr Pritchard-Jones described the incident as a ‘sustained assault’, adding Perry was not wearing shoes when he kicked his wife. He said: “She genuinely thought that he would kill her.”

Megan Williams, defending, said Perry was previously of clean character.

Magistrates accepted jurisdiction to sentence Perry, and adjourned the case until September 4 for the probation service to prepare a report.

He was released on bail with the conditions not to contact the victim, or enter Marble Hall Road, Milford Haven.