The sentencing of a man who admitted to running over his wife with a motorbike on Wednesday was adjourned yesterday for six weeks in order for a social inquiry report into the matter to be prepared.

Dnarte Manuel Lima, 31, of Sleepy Hollow Drive, Hamilton Parish, pleaded guilty in Magistrates? Court to assaulting his wife, Sonia Lima, and to causing her actual bodily harm in Devonshire on April 27.

He also admitted to causing damage by reckless driving at the same date and time.

Lima?s lawyer Venous Telford told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that her client had ?snapped? because he believed that his wife ? from whom he has been separated since April 18 ? had been cheating with another man.

Crown counsel Wayne Caines told the court that at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Mrs. Lima was talking to her sister near the junction of Middle Road and Garthowen Road when Lima approached on a cycle and rode straight into her.

?The defendant slapped her in the cheek,? Mr. Caines said. ?Mrs. Lima said to call the Police.?

Mrs. Lima tried to escape to her car, where her five-year-old daughter was sitting, but Lima ?approached her from behind and hit her face hard, threw her to the ground and kicked her in the face and body,? Mr. Caines said.

While she lay defenceless on the ground, Lima rode over her on the bike a second time, he said.

?He rode on top of her legs and revved the engine so, the back wheel was spinning on her legs,? he said. ?A car was coming down the driveway and the defendant drove off and left the area. Witnesses called 911 and a Police investigation commenced.?

Mrs. Lima was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where ?doctors saw a shoe imprint on her forehead?, Mr. Caines added.

?She sustained extensive abrasions in the areas of her shoulders, elbows and right hand.

?She suffered extensive bruising on her left leg and a burn mark on her right thigh.?

Four hours after the attack, Lima turned himself in at Hamilton Police Station.

?I caught my wife cheating last night,? Lima told Police.

He admitted to punching and kicking his wife ? with whom he has two children.

Mr. Caines read a victim impact statement to the court, which said Mrs. Lima had not been able to sleep since the attack, was on medication for her pain and was terrified that Lima would assault her again.

?I have been in a lot of pain and have flashbacks of him kicking me in the head,? she said in the statement. ?He always hits me when he gets angry. He hits me in front of the kids. I am afraid he will hit them.?

Mr. Caines said Lima and his wife have been separated since April 18.

?He moved out his belongings since that date and does not live in that home,? he said. ?She wanted to file for divorce.?

Defence lawyer Venous Telford said, however, that her client was provoked to attack.

?He did not go looking for her,? Ms Telford said. ?He was simply heartbroken when he saw another gentleman going into their matrimonial home at 10:30 p.m. the night before.?

She said he snapped when he confronted his wife the next morning and she said, ?You will never catch us?.editor Bill Zuill, along with his father, testified yesterday they had known Lima to be a man of previous good character for 30 years.

Mr. Zuill said he considered Lima to be an honest, hard-working and diligent man.

?He grew up at a property near me, so I saw him progress through his education and into the working world,? he said.

?In that time I have never seen him raise his voice or act in a threatening manner to any of his employees or anyone else for that matter.?

Mr. Zuill surmised that the stress of his family difficulties contributed to Lima?s actions.

?I also think he has already been punished and shamed by being in court today and I am very confident that you will never see him in this place again,? he said. ?I, therefore, ask you to use whatever discretion you may have in this case in his favour.?

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner adjourned the sentencing for six weeks in order for a social inquiry report to be prepared.

A domestic violence order was also placed on Lima, which means he cannot attempt to contact his wife.