Travel agent admits assaulting wife (From Tivyside Advertiser)

Travel agent admits assaulting wife

9:30am Wednesday 30th January 2013 in News

A travel agent from Blaenporth has finally admitted pushing his wife down the stairs breaking one of her ribs.

Timothy Simon Anthony Osborne, aged 46, was told this week he would receive a prison sentence but it would be suspended.

Judge Paul Thomas said he would also make a restraining order preventing Osborne from contacting his estranged wife Deborah.

Osborne stood trial in September on a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm, which he denied.

But the jury could not agree on a verdict and a retrial was due to begin today.

Stephen Rees, prosecuting, inroduced a new, lesser charge of assault causing actual bodily harm, to which Osborne pleaded guilty "on the full facts of the prosecution's case."

Osborne's barrister, Dyfed Thomas, told Swansea crown court that since the first trial his priorities had changed. His father had died and he was now the full time carer of his mother, who had developed dementia.

He said Osborne was no longer in contact with his wife and divorce proceedings were underway.

During the September trial the jury heard how a row broke out on May 30, 2011.

Mrs Osborne said that she had become angry that her husband was working on a Bank Holiday instead of spending time with the family.

She said her husband returned to an upstairs office at their home to continue working and she followed.

As she tried to enter the room he pushed her so hard, she alleged, that she toppled over the bannister and down the stairs, breaking three ribs.

Osborne, who specialises in cruises, agreed he had pushed his wife but said that had had nothing to do with her falling down the stairs, which happened a short while later.

Osborne, who now lives in Chichester, will be sentenced in late February after a probation officer has prepared a report into his background.

He was granted bail meanwhile.