Young children watched in horror as their father attacked his wife, severing the tendons in her hand, a court heard.
Lerio Dayaon managed to escape from her 36-year-old husband Alan by climbing out of a window and going to a neighbour.
The attack at her home was witnessed by the couple's four children, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
Dayaon was jailed for two years after admitting causing his wife grievous bodily harm.
The court heard there had been problems in the couple's marriage and they had separated with Dayaon having limited access to the children.
On July 3, the three oldest children, aged ten, seven and six, were returned to their mother's home in Epping Way, Witham, by Dayaon but not the youngest child.
Dayaon, of Herriot Road, Hendon, did not return the child, aged four, until the next day when he arrived at the house with another couple from the Philippines.
Mrs Dayaon, a nurse at Colchester General Hospital, refused to let him into the house and the youngster was passed through a window.
He was taken upstairs but when Mrs Dayaon came down again, her husband was in the house, Barney Branston, prosecuting, said.
He added: "Mrs Dayaon was frightened and asked him to leave but he grabbed her around the neck, dragged her into the kitchen and grabbed an eight-inch knife.
"There was a struggle and she feared she would be killed.
"The ten-year-old was shouting 'Get out, stop it'," Mr Branston said.
Mrs Dayaon eventually managed to get away by climbing out a window but not before tendons in her right hand were severed by the knife.
Surgeons at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, managed to repair them.
Passing sentence, Judge Ben Pearson told Dayaon: "It is the court's duty to protect vulnerable members of society including women, both within and without the home, and to protect children from having to watch or being involved in domestic violence.
"Your wife and children were entitled to feel safe in the home but you invaded that home and destroyed their safety."
Published Friday, January 17, 2003
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