A TEACHER who smashed her husband over the head with a hair drier has been jailed for 16 months.

Meena Chivers, who stands 5ft 2ins, swung the appliance by its electrical flex and smashed into the head of 20-stone hubby Paul, also a teacher, in the night time row.

And the following morning, after he had returned from hospital with eight stitches, she resumed the attack and hit him over the head with a cat bowl.

The 41-year-old, who denied the assaults, was convicted of unlawful wounding and common assault by a jury at Swindon Crown Court.

The churchgoing mum had also been accused of hitting him with a glass picture frame in an earlier incident and was found not guilty.

Last month the jury of seven men and five women heard how the couple's relationship had been in trouble for a while before the incident at their Highworth home in March last year.

Mr Chivers had got home after a stressful day and gone to bed, which upset his wife who went and confronted him.

After she made a series of spiteful comments he snapped and 'bumped' her off the bed and before she turned violent, before telling him she had calmed down.

But she hadn't and ripped the hair drier from the wall and swung it round, bringing it down on his head.

He took himself to hospital, and when he got back bedded down on the sofa so as not to bother her, but in the morning she renewed hostilities and hit him with the cat bowl.

Yanick Fielding, defending, said his client, who suffers post-traumatic stress disorder, had devoted her life to her family, faith and job.

He said: "This is not an offence the public require to have marked with a prison sentence. No one would benefit from her being incarcerated."

At trial she accepted hitting him with the hair drier but said she had thrown it in anger claiming he had dangled her over the banisters.

Passing sentence Judge Peter Blair QC said: "He came back exhausted, as I considered he was, from the psychological stress placed upon him. He went to bed.

"You weren't taking that from him and you sought to continue your dispute that you had with him.

"You made some nasty vicious comments about getting rid of him. He returned, by now provoked by you, and he bumped you off the bed, as he accepted, on to the threshold of the landing. Thereafter you became violent.

"Though he managed to subdue you and you said you had stopped you then went and ripped your hair drier out of the wall and you then wielded it by the flex, using it as a weapon, and you then brought it down deliberately on his head causing profuse bleeding.

"He went to hospital where it was stapled and spent the rest of the night downstairs on the sofa.

"In the morning, not the slightest remorse but instead whacking him over the head with a pet food bowl.

"While you presented to the world as a person who was meek and mild, you bullied your husband over a considerable period of time and this incident was the culmination of this history.

"You don't, it seems to me, appreciate just what impact your behaviour had upon your family."

Referring to her references, including some from 'formidable people', he said they only saw one side of her.

"They had hidden from them the way you conducted yourself towards your husband in the home," he said.

"It is a background, in my assessment, to the voracity of some of the things you are saying and the way you painted yourself in the things you said in the trial.

"I reject the submission that you yourself were subjected to a degree of provocation on the night in question or the next morning or there was some element of self defence. But I accept there was no premeditation."

In a statement released by Wiltshire Police, Mr Chivers said: "I am thankful that this ordeal has come to an end and will now be focusing on rebuilding my life and ensuring that my family and I have a safe and happy home environment.

"I am grateful for the support of Wiltshire Police and would like to thank my family and friends who have also been a great support to me at this difficult time. I would also like to thank the Mankind Initiative who provide great support and advice to male victims of domestic abuse.  

"It can feel hard for some people, particularly men, to report domestic abuse but my situation shows that you will be taken seriously and provided the right support.

"I would encourage any other victims to contact the police who can help put a stop to the abuse.

"I hope now that my family and I can be left alone to get on with our lives.'

Wiltshire Police Investigator Louise Kennelly said: "Meena has yet to accept responsibility for her actions and the serious impact that she has had. No one should have to suffer the abuse that we have seen in this case.

"We hear about women who are the victims of domestic abuse in the media but the men who are victims often suffer in silence.

"We understand there may be a reluctance for male victims to report their abuse but we encourage anyone who has been a victim regardless of their gender to report it to police so we can help provide the right support and take action against the offenders.

"We hope that this case will encourage other victims to come forward."