'Daddy, don't do this to mummy again': Heartbreaking letter boy, seven, wrote to his father

A little boy wrote a heartbreaking letter begging his father not to hurt his mother anymore - after watching him kick her on the floor 20 times. Stephen Carter, 36, broke his estranged wife Amanda’s arm in the vicious beating after downing 10 pints of beer while babysitting their seven-year-old son, Oliver. 

 The traumatised youngster heard the onslaught from his bedroom and later wrote an emotional note begging his father never to hurt his mother again. Carter wept as an extract of the note was read out to the courtroom during his trial for assault. The youngster wrote: 'Daddy, please don’t ever do this to mummy again.' Carter, from Whitstable, Kent, pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife at Canterbury Crown Court and was given a nine-month jail sentence suspended for two years. 

Sentencing, Judge Simon James said: 'This was a cowardly and sustained attack on the mother of your children, perpetrated on her in her own home - part of which was witnessed by your seven-year-old son. 'He was so concerned he felt compelled to write you a note pleading with you never to do anything like that again to his mummy. You will have to live with the shame of what you did for the rest of your life. 'You should be under no illusions just how close you came to going straight to prison.'

 The court heard how Carter was babysitting in October last year while his estranged wife went to work as a manager at a local Tesco store. At 4am - as he slept on the sofa after drinking 10 pints of beer - Mrs Carter went through his mobile phone text messages and realised he was in a new relationship. In a temper, she threw the phone at her estranged husband, hitting him on the bridge of the nose and causing it to bleed before slapping him a number of times in the face. As she apologised, Carter then launched a ferocious attack, kicking her as she pleaded, 'Stephen, please stop. 

That’s enough, stop it'. As Mrs Carter got up from the floor her husband renewed his attack, kicking her again up to four times. 'This was a cowardly and sustained attack on the mother of your children, perpetrated on her in her own home - part of which was witnessed by your seven-year-old son' - Judge Simon James After arriving at work in severe pain she was sent to the William Harvey Hospital, where doctors diagnosed a fractured arm.

 She described her injuries as 'more painful than childbirth' and was left unable to hug her children. Prosecutor James Bilsland said the couple’s marriage fell apart amid allegations of drinking and cheating but the two shared custody of Oliver and his three-year-old sister. He said the couple married in 2004, but separated in August 2011 when Carter moved out to live with his mother. Mr Bilsland said: 'The pain she experienced was even worse than the pain of childbirth.

 'She said, ‘I remember then thinking I was paralysed. I lost count of the total number of times I was kicked but it was between 15 and 20. 'At this point she felt she was only semi-conscious and the room appeared to go blue and she crawled into a ball. 'She then heard Oliver crying, sat next to him and said: ‘Don’t worry, there will be no more fights now’.' He added: 'Mrs Carter said the relationship had broken down over the previous two years and the defendant had been drinking heavily. 'Afterwards he had become aware she was involved in another relationship with another man.

 'They were both struggling to move on from their relationship and had problems with communication.' Carter escaped an immediate jail sentence after a judge heard the couple were hoping for a reconciliation and was handed the suspended sentence and 260 hours of unpaid work. Claire Cooper, defending, said: 'He behaved in a barbaric manner but it was totally, completely and utterly out of character during a period of emotional turmoil.'