A HUSBAND has been jailed after he ripped off his wife’s blouse before trying to force her to perform oral sex on him.
A court heard he had ‘snapped’ after the couple had not had sexual contact for ten years.
The man from Coventry – who is in his early 60s but cannot be named to protect his wife’s identity – pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to attempting to rape her.
He was jailed for two-and-a-half years and ordered to register as a sex offender for life by the judge, who also imposed a restraining order preventing him from contacting his wife.
Prosecutor Denis Barry said the defendant ‘attempted to rape his wife by trying to penetrate her mouth.’
The couple had married in the 1990s, but ceased intimate relationships around ten years ago because of a combination of her health problems and him being caught with some of their daughter’s underwear while performing a sex act.
In May, the wife was in her bedroom when she became concerned over a noise from the defendant’s room.
She found him performing a sex act, called him a ‘dirty b******’ and went downstairs.
Within minutes, he walked into her room naked and told her: “If you don’t want me I’ll make you have me.”
He grabbed her by her arm and pulled her into his room, and she believed he was going to rape her as he ripped her blouse and pulled her bra off.
His terrified wife faked illness and slid down the wall to the floor in a sitting position.
The defendant refused her pleas to be allowed to get her medication and tried to force himself into her mouth, which she kept shut.
She ran out to a neighbour’s home and the police were called.
Mr Barry pointed out the defendant also called the police, telling the operator: “I’ve attacked my wife. I need to be arrested. I tried to sexually assault her.”
When the police arrived and arrested him, he told them: “Something snapped and I just started ripping her clothes off and tried to force her to have sex.”
The court heard that in an impact statement, the wife said: “This incident was the single most frightening thing that has ever happened because of the look on his face. For days I slept fully-clothed in case he came back and I had to run.”
Rebecca Wade, defending, conceded: “This type of offence usually attracts sentences of immediate custody unless there are exceptional circumstances.
“He acknowledges what he did was wrong, and does not suggest what he did was anything other than abhorrent; but his actions after the offence do make it an exceptional case.
“He has lost everything, his wife, his family and his job. He knows he only has himself to blame.”
Judge Alan Parker responded: “I totally accept he is full of remorse, but one also has to consider that the victim’s life has been devastated by it.”
He told the defendant: “It must have been completely obvious she had no sexual interest in you at all, but you just went into her room and said ‘If you don’t want me, I’ll make you.
“For the full offence the starting point would be a sentence of five years. But you have demonstrated remorse, and the offence in its attempted form has to be regarded as less serious.
“However I do not feel able to categorise this as an exceptional offence.”
