A THUG battered his defenceless wife around the head with children’s toys before standing on her neck until he thought she was dead.

Zaibul Miah had been remanded in prison since the attack on February 8 last year and because of the time already spent in jail, at Bolton Crown Court he was sentenced to a community order for two years after admitting causing grievous bodily harm.

Joshua Bowker, prosecuting, told how Miah had married his wife in Bangladesh in 2016 and she joined him in the UK three years later.

The court heard how the couple and their two sons eventually moved to Oldham but on February 8 Miah became angry about not being able to access his online banking and flew into a rage with his wife when she asked him to buy medicine for one of the children.

“His response was to grab the complainant’s throat with his right hand to try and strangle her,” said Mr Bowker.

When she pushed him away Miah picked up a toy car and hit her in the face and head with it before then selecting a scooter and using that to also attack his wife’s head and eye.

“At this point the complainant stood up. However, the defendant knocked her to the floor,” said Mr Bowker.

“He stood over her and put his foot on her neck, applying pressure. She lay lifeless on the floor and he then got off her. Her belief was that probably happened because he thought she was dead.”

The attack, which lasted around two hours, occurred in front of the couple’s children before she was able to escape the house and run to a neighbour’s home.

Miah, of Sylvan Street, Oldham, was arrested nearby with blood on his trousers and his wife was taken to hospital with a split lip, cuts to the back of her head and a swollen right eye. She went to live in a women’s refuge and is now seeking a divorce.

In a victim statement she told the court how she could not understand how her husband had changed.

Andrew Marsh, defending, said that Miah, who has no previous convictions, is sorry for his behaviour.

“He has expressed remorse for the effect he has had on his wife and children,” said Mr Marsh, who added that Miah intends to go and live with his brother in London.

Imposing a community sentence, The Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh told Miah that he had subjected his wife to a “violent and gratuitous attack”.

He stressed: “The fact that I am imposing a community order is not an indication of the fact that the courts do not take seriously offences of violence within the context of a domestic relationship.

“I make it abundantly clear that, if it had not been for the time you have already spent in custody, an immediate sentence of imprisonment would have followed in this case.”

Miah was ordered to participate in 30 days of rehabilitation activities and a restraining order was made banning him from contacting his victim for five years.