A MAN butted his wife in the face after a prolonged row over her inviting an ex-boyfriend round to their house.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Sharon Lynch suffered a cut lip and bruising as a result of the attack which was witnessed by her daughter.

Michael Lynch, 35, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to assault and the case was adjourned for the preparation of pre-sentence reports.

Margaret Duckworth, prosecuting, said there had been problems between the couple in the past which had resulted in violence. On the day of this incident Sharon had been working in the Help the Aged charity shop in Blackburn when she saw an old friend and arranged for him to come round and meet her husband some time.

When she got home Mrs Lynch told her husband, who had started shouting at her. He turned to her daughter and said: "Your mother is nothing but a prostitute."

Mrs Duckworth said Lynch went on at his wife for about three-and-a-half hours during which time he drank three litre bottles of wine. He told the child that he had caught her mother in bed with Uncle James, his elder brother, and told his wife that if her friend came round he would rip his head off.

Eventually he grabbed his wife by the face cutting her lip on her tooth and then butted her.

Mrs Duckworth said Mrs Lynch and her daughter got dressed and eventually managed to sneak out of the house.

She said Lynch was a man with past convictions for violence and in January of last year he was sent to prison for nine months for five assaults.

Adrian Williams, defending, said: Lynch had no wish to have anything further to do with his wife. He said the friend referred to was her ex-boyfriend and Lynch had also discovered that while he was in prison last year his wife had an affair with his brother James.

"He is not proud of what he said to his step-daughter," said Mr Williams. "He was not happy about the ex-boyfriend coming round to their home, they argued and he had been drinking."