A TREGARON man who assaulted his wife with a bar stool, slashed her tyres, and threw her mobile phone into a fire over the course of three months has escaped jail.

Gwynli Edwards, of Lletemddu, Stags Head, appeared before Aberystwyth Magistrates’ Court on 29 June.

Edwards, 48, pleaded guilty to assaulting Pamela Edwards on 2 February at Sunny Hill pub in Tregaron as well as a charge of engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour towards Mrs Edwards between Christmas Day 2021 and 1 March this year.

The court heard that Edwards threw a bag of prawns at Mrs Edwards on 25 December, and on 28 January this year threw her mobile phone into the fire.

Later that day Edwards damaged a CCTV camera at the Sunnyhill pub and slashed two of Mrs Edwards’ tyres.

On 1 February, Edwards pushed Mrs Edwards to the shoulder on two occasions and “repeatedly stabbed” her mobile phone with a knife, the court heard.

Edwards then refunded Mrs Edwards customers at the Sunnyhill pub using an app, costing the business money, on 4 February, then on 8 February Edwards contacted Mrs Edwards using a separate Facebook account and “used verbally abusive language towards her”.

On 16 February, Edwards used a tracking device to find out where Mrs Edwards was and when he got there he damaged her glasses by grabbing them from her face and proceeded to empty the contents of her bag and “kick them out of her reach.”

The court heard that the “behaviour had a serious effect” on Mrs Edwards.

Edwards was sentenced to 26 weeks in jails, suspended for 24 months.

Magistrates said the assault was an “unprovoked attack of a serious nature”, with the “use of a bar stool as a weapon on more than one occasion”, but decided to suspend the jail sentence as Edwards had no previous convictions.

Edwards was also made the subject of a restraining order and must attend rehabilitation activities.

He must also pay costs of £85 as well as a surcharge to fund victim services of £128.