A solder has kissed goodbye to his Army career after being jailed for beating his wife.
Magistrates told 3 Para Private Ricky Trueman he left them with no choice but to imprison him after he refused the possibility of a community penalty for his crime. Soldiers sent to prison are discharged from the Army.
The 21-year-old acted "like a maniac" when his wife, whom he had been separated from for one month, told him she was seeing another man, a court heard.
He threatened to kill Terri-Anne Trueman in a phone call and threw a vacuum cleaner at her.
Colchester magistrates heard Mrs Trueman and friend Louise Harding switched off the lights and took sanctuary in an upstairs bedroom after Trueman's threat.
But Trueman, in his fifth year with 3 Para, let himself in and went straight upstairs, where he grabbed his wife by both arms and shook her violently.
Trueman, who was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and was due to return there in April, chased his wife downstairs and grabbed her round the throat before hitting and headbutting four more doors, causing a total of more than £500 damage.
Trueman, of Aisne Road, Colchester, admitted common assault and criminal damage yesterday.
Russell Haldane, mitigating, said Trueman had taken a "very mature and brave approach" to the proceedings.
Magistrates sentenced him to six weeks in prison for each offence, to run concurrently.
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Published Wednesday, February 23, 2005
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