A man was spared jail despite punching his wife in the face because she tormented him with accusations that he was the Devil.
Anthony Berry received a suspended sentence for his violent outbursts after a court decided he had “suffered a degree of provocation”.
His devoutly Catholic wife Claire, who had previously forced him to endure an exorcism in France, had him doused with Holy water in the moments before he hit out.
The court accepted that Berry, 52, had endured years of his wife bizarre behaviour after he admitted an affair and she joined an ultra-conservative Catholic group.
Mrs Berry, who was married to her husband for 22 years, was said to be fixated with the controversial Society of Saint Pius X which rejects the modernising, socially liberal Vatican reforms of the 1960s and has been dogged by accusations of anti-semitism.
She claimed that a blurred selfie that her husband had taken proved that he was possessed by the Devil. She also alleged that a small dragon could be seen flying in their £130,000 terraced house in Derbyshire whenever Mr Berry was home.
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Berry was convicted of two separate assaults following a trial last month but only learned on Monday that he would be spared jail after magistrates accepted his mitigation.
Chairman of the bench Bob Graham said: "Both of these assaults were prolonged and quite brutal and I have to say nasty. Drink was also involved and you also issued threats to kill.”
"But we have taken into account there was a degree of provocation."
'Possessed' husband spared jail after assaults on wife - Telegraph
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