AN ALCOHOLIC who attacked his estranged wife and her friend in front of his hysterical daughter left the child thinking he was killing her mother, a court heard.

Paul Connolly, 39, beat up his wife Rachel with a wooden coffee table as she feared for her life, after he turned up at her Nelson home in the early hours.

He then set about Kirsty Singleton as she tried to protect her friend. Connolly, who later phoned his wife at hospital and made threats, terrified his nine-year-old daughter. When police arrived to find Mrs Connolly semi-conscious in the floor, she asked officers: “Is my mummy going to die?” Burnley Crown Court heard.

The defendant was spared immediate jail, after earlier admitting two counts of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of intimidation.

He was given 43 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, with 12 months supervision and a six month curfew between 8pm and 6am.

Sentencing, Recorder Rowena Goode said the incident was “thoroughly unpleasant and serious” and was aggravated by the fact the daughter saw it. But, she added, Connolly had taken steps to control his drinking, was working, appeared to have insight into what he had done and had not been in trouble for seven years.

Charlotte Holland, defending, said Connolly could remember almost nothing about what happened as he had been drinking heavily.