A HUSBAND reacted furiously when a baby monitor linked to his mobile phone relayed the sound of his wife with another man in the marital bedroom.

After hearing the shocking evidence of his wife’s affair with a former colleague, 47-year-old Marek Fecko rushed back to the house in west Cumbria to confront the man – and ended up threatening him with a knife.

The man escaped physical harm after fleeing from the house just in time and locking  himself in his car, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Fecko, of Westfield View, Flimby, later admitted affray and possessing a knife in a public place with no reasonable excuse.

Prosecutor Tim Evans outlined how the defendant and his wife had been happily married for eleven years but there came a time when Fecko landed a better paid job which meant he spent less time at home.

The barrister said: “The unhappy result of that was that his wife commenced an affair. That affair was with a former work colleague of Mr Fecko. At the time of the offences, October 31, the affair had been going on for five and a half months.

“Mr Fecko and his wife had stayed together, even though he became aware of the affair from messages on his wife’s phone.”

Turning to the events of October 31, Mr Evans said Fecko and his wife and spent the night together in the marital bed before he left for work at around 9am. “In the marital bedroom,” said Mr Evans, “there was a baby monitor.

“It was connected by way of sound and vision to Mr Fecko’s phone. Within a short time of him leaving the house, his wife and Mr Forsyth were in the marital bedroom. She’d turned the baby monitor towards the wall.

“But she didn’t turn off the sound. Therefore the goings on in the marital bedroom were broadcast to Mr Fecko’s phone.”

Angered by what he heard, Fecko immediately drove home, arriving there and banging on the front door to be let in as he shouted “Where is he?” Once inside the house, he ran upstairs to find [the lover] but he was gone.

He had already fled while the defendant was being distracted at the front door, said Mr Evans. Returning down the stairs, Fecko grabbed a “large knife” from the kitchen and ran out of the back door, where [the other man] had jumped into his “surreptitiously parked” car and quickly locked the doors.

Fecko was seen waving the knife as he told the man: “I’ll kill you.” The court heard that Fecko had no previous convictions.

Judith McCullough, mitigating, said Fecko had left his native Slovakia 12 years ago after the break up of his first marriage. “He decided to seek new opportunities and hoped for a better life,” said the barrister.

On the day of the offences, he had wanted to confront his wife and her lover but he had no intention to use violence. “When he picked up the knife, it was a spur of the moment decision, and one which he now greatly regrets.”

He accepted holding the knife by his side as he made “empty threats,” said Miss McCullough. “While this was not acceptable, it was a very human reaction to a significant degree of provocation.”

Despite it all, said Miss McCullough, Fecko hoped to reconcile with his wife, though he appreciated there was work to do. He also understood that his job was still open to him, even though he has spent eight weeks remanded in custody.

Miss McCullough added: “He will never be before the court again.”

Noting the circumstances of the offences, Judge Nicholas Barker told Fecko: “Quite what response [his wife and her lover] anticipated they would receive from you is open to question.

“But of course you would be upset and angry at this act of infidelity; after all, you and Ludmilla had been married for 11 years and had a family together. [The victim] had been a work colleague of yours.”

But Fecko had made the mistake of picking up a large kitchen knife and following his wife’s lover out of the property before waving the knife at [the victim] while threatening to kill him, said the judge.

But Judge Barker noted that Fecko was a man of good character who worked hard to support his family. The judge continued: “You were rightly angered and distressed by the scene that presented itself to you. However, taking up the knife and making threats  with it was overstepping the mark.”

The judge imposed an 18-month community order, with 120 hours of unpaid work. A restraining order will bar any contact with the victim for a year. The judge added: “I don’t think this defendant is in need of rehabilitation.”

The defendant and the man who was the victim no longer work together.