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.