A MARRIED man who was staying in a north Cumbrian hotel while working in the area assaulted his wife after a night out.

James Simpson, 52, bit the woman on her lower lip, though she did not need medical intervention, Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard. The defendant admitted an actual bodily harm assault.

George Shelley, prosecuting, outlined the offence.

He said the defendant had his wife had been together for nine years and married for five years. Simpson usually travelled to work, and stayed in hotels for that reason while away from home.

On February 3, he was staying at the Warwick Hall Country Hotel, Warwick-on-Eden , and she was visiting him. At 12.20am, his wife contacted the police, reporting that her husband had assaulted her.

Thirty minutes later, police arrived and spoke to her through a window, noticing she had a facial injury consistent with the allegation.

“He was upstairs in a bedroom asleep,” said Mr Shelley.

When he was interviewed, Simpson denied the assault, saying he and his wife had been intoxicated and he did not know how she had sustained the injury.

A probation officer who interviewed the defendant acknowledged that there had been previous incidents, but he denied that he had an issue with alcohol. “He was heavily intoxicated on this occasion,” said the officer.

The defendant had eight offences on his record, and alcohol had been a factor, she added.

Jeff Smith, for Simpson, said there was no evidence the defendant deliberately bit his wife; there were no previous offences of violence; and the prosecution had not argued Simpson was likely to be violent to his partner or anybody else.

Mr Smith said: “He states that he was very intoxicated; and it may well be that the victim was also very intoxicated that day.”

He said the background had wanted to know from whom a message on her husband’s phone had come and decided not to return it. The lawyer added: “What happened should not have happened.

“But I don’t see him as a risk to future partners. He very much regrets the situation he finds himself in.” He added that Simpson’s colleagues thought highly of him.

Magistrates said the offence amounted to a serious assault, remarking that they had seen the photos of the woman’s injured face. They imposed a 26-week jail term, suspended for two years.

Simpson must complete a Building Better Relationships course, five rehabilitation activity days, and 120 days of electronically monitored alcohol abstinence.

The defendant, of Elton Road, Stibbington, Peterborough, must also pay the victim £200 compensation, pay costs of £85, and a £154 victim surcharge.