A violent man who beat his  wife repeatedly around the  head while she was suffering  from a brain tumour will  spend Christmas behind bars.

Brett Spencer Hilton, 34,  smashed his wife’s head repeatedly into a steering wheel  and threatened to throw her in a  river during the attack on Winnington Lane, Northwich.

Hilton, from Pebsham Lane, Bexhill on Sea, was  jailed for four months following the assault which left  his seriously ill wife fearing for  her safety and terrified of leaving the house.

District Judge Michael Abelson slated the 34-year-old as a ‘violent’ man who had committed a ‘shameful attack’ against a  sick woman suffering from a  life-threatening brain tumour,  during the hearing at Chester Magistrates Court on Thursday, December 19.

The court heard how, on March  8 this year, a domestic dispute  turned nasty with Hilton bashing his wife’s head against the  steering wheel of a car – she  believed he had deliberately targeted the site of her grade three  brain tumour.

Hilton pleaded guilty to assaulting Rachel Hilton by beating during the trial earlier this  year, which saw the seriously ill  woman give evidence about the  traumatic attack.

The couple are no longer together, the court was told.

In a witness impact statement read out to the court,  Mrs Hilton said the attack had left her scared for the  safety of her children and of looking out of the  window in case he was watching them.

She also believed the attack had caused the  tumour to grow from a grade three to a grade four  tumour, a claim which could not be backed up by  medical evidence.

In his defence Hilton said the attack had not been  unsolicited and that Mrs Hilton had struck out  during the incident following an argument.

District Judge Ableson said the attack came after  Hilton had already become increasingly controlling, calling his wife a ‘fat cow’ in front of her  children and punching her in the ribs.

“I believe you are a violent man. You sought to  undermine the part you played in this. She is a sick  woman who suffers from a life-threatening condition.  This is shameful,” said District Judge Ableson.

Sentencing Hilton to four months behind bars,  District Judge Ableson also made a restraining  order preventing him from contacting Rachel  Hilton.