AN estranged husband who throttled and bit his former wife during a drunken assault walked free from court yesterday.

A judge at Teesside Crown Court told Mathew Skeet, 28, he would get more help in the community than he would behind bars.

He was given a suspended prison sentence with supervision and ordered to take part in a two-year programme to combat domestic abuse.

He was also told to carry out 200 hours of community work and pay his former wife £250 in compensation. He was also banned from contacting her.

Skeet, a landscape gardener of Johnson’s Yard, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm.

His barrister, Matthew Gent, said: “This is a man who clearly does require help in relation to how he manages his anger and how he deals with females in a relationship.”

Skeet and his wife separated in April last year but continued to live together for financial reasons.