A MAN attacked his wife with a picture frame and tried to snatch a puppy away from her daughter after she accused him of receiving flirty text messages.

Appearing in court for sentencing, Jordan John Lucas, of Heritage Drive, Buckley, admitted assaulting Diane Lucas on August 19 at the couple's home less than two months after the couple got married.

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting at Flintshire Magistrates Court, said the newly-weds had spent the evening of August 18 drinking with friends before returning home at 1am.

The next day they were suffering from hangovers and slept in before Lucas said he was going food shopping and left the house at 11am.

He did not return until 1.30pm and admitted he had been to the Old Trooper pub in Christleton where he had been watching football.

At 5.30pm, Mrs Lucas heard her husband's iPhone vibrating constantly and picking up the device she saw he had received a number of text messages that Mrs Jackson described as "flirty in nature".

She went upstairs to challenge Lucas, who had been drinking wine throughout the afternoon, shouting "what the hell are these messages?" before throwing the phone which struck him on the head.

Lucas, 29, then pulled a canvas picture off the wall, broke it over his knee and then used the pieces of wood to stab into the wall and hit his wife.

He also began smashing up the bedroom and, grabbing hold of his wife, he pushed her into the wardrobe before then trying to snatch a puppy off Ms Lucas' 10-year-old daughter and punching further holes in the bedroom door.

The Mold court heard Lucas had entered a guilty plea on September 4, but his wife had since retracted her statement and indicated she wanted to make a go of the relationship and was not requesting a restraining order.

A probation report from Rachel Woodcock said Lucas' priority was to safeguard his employment and that he was "controlling and coercive".

Despite his drinking, she said, Lucas denied having any dependency issues.

Representing himself and pointing to his wife who was in court, Lucas said: "I love her to pieces. Otherwise she wouldn't be standing here by my side."

Handing Lucas a 12 month community sentence, District Judge Gwyn Jones told him: "This was an incident in the family home while a child was in that home.

"You lost it, causing damage to the property and using a piece of wood to strike your partner."

Lucas will have to take part in a 15 day rehabilitation activity as well as being required to undertake 120 hours of unpaid work. He will also pay £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £85.