A BOXING Day row between a Huddersfield couple erupted into violence when they each threw a bottle at the other.
But the bottle thrown by Ian Gadsden hit wife Tracey in the face and broke her cheekbone, Bradford Crown Court was told.
Gadsden, 40, pleaded guilty to wounding. He was given a 100-hour community punishment order and a one-year community rehabilitation order.
Ben Crosland, prosecuting, said the couple's eight-year marriage had turned stormy in the two years before the offence.
Both were given to drinking large amounts of alcohol, he added.
Once, they had a fight and gave each other a black eye.
On Boxing Day they went to a party at Mrs Gadsden's mother's home in Dalton. An argument developed between the couple and Mrs Gadsden called him "a miserable bastard".
Gadsden was driven home by one of their sons.
His wife went drinking in several pubs before going home. By that time, both were the worse for drink and there was an argument in the living room.
Mrs Gadsen said her husband hit her with a bottle and punched her.
The couple's two sons were upstairs in bed and ran downstairs to find their mother covered in blood, said Mr Crosland.
Gadsden was arrested and told police his wife had thrown a bottle at him before he threw one back.
His wife was taken to hospital, where it was found that she had a cut face. Two days later she had surgery to fit a titanium plate into her broken cheekbone.
Fiona Dix-Dyer, for Gadsden- now of Moulden, Bedfordshire - said he still could not believe what happened during the "momentary madness".
Ms Dix-Dyer said he was sitting at home when something suddenly hit him. He picked up a bottle and threw it in his wife's direction, without looking where it was going.
Gadsden now understood that his wife wanted a divorce over the incident, which had effectively destroyed his life.
He was now living with his mother and had lost his home, job and marriage.
Judge Roger Scott told Gadsden
that if he was convicted of violence after next April he faced a five-year jail sentence.
