A young father was last night found not guilty of breaking into his estranged wife's home with intent to murder her at the end of an emotional three-day trial.

The 28-year-old Pembroke man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sat motionless as the verdict was returned by the nine woman, three man jury late yesterday afternoon.

However, the defendant is still likely to get a lengthy jail term. Although he was also found not guilty of seriously sexually assaulting his wife in her Southampton apartment in August of last year, he was found guilty by a majority vote of an alternative, lesser charge, of sexual assault.

Halfway through the trial, he had changed his plea to grievous bodily harm from not guilty to guilty.

He is to be sentenced for both offences on March 6. The trial, before Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons saw both the 31-year-old victim and her estranged husband break down and cry on the stand while giving evidence. He admitted to the court that he had “hit” his wife. And he said he did pull out a knife and then have sex with her, however, he said he removed the knife from his trouser pocket because it was digging in his leg, and said he believed the sex had been consensual.

He said he loved his wife and never intended to kill her. He said: “I never intended at any time, or even suggested, attempted or gave the impression...I love my wife... I wish I had killed myself when I got the chance.”

His wife, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court on Tuesday that she had returned home after taking their young daughter to nursery school to find her husband in the apartment.

The woman said she demanded he leave, but he refused, and a struggle ensued, resulting in him punching her in the face several times.

The jury heard how the attacker had pulled a steak knife out of his trouser pocket, and then began to demand sex from her.

Motioning the knife towards the bedroom, he told her to get inside and lie down. She told the court that he at first demanded anal sex, and then raped her vaginally. She told the court that while she was being sexually assaulted, her husband put the knife beside the bed, but then picked it up again when he was finished.

Soon after, the defendant took his wife to hospital for treatment to her battered and bruised face, where she told doctors what had happened. Police were called.

The defendant told the court that he had been “honest and co-operative” when giving statements to the Police. In his statements, he made no mention of wanting to kill his wife, but said he had broken in to her home to check recent numbers dialled on the phone as he wanted to know if she was seeing another man.

But the court heard that during a questions and answers session at the Police Station, detectives asked the defendant what his intentions were when he broke into the apartment, and the husband said he wanted to kill his wife.

Prosecutor Charmaine Smith said: “You told Police that you were going to strangle her. You were being ‘honest and co-operative'.”

But yesterday, the young father, who frequently broke down while giving evidence, told the court he believed Police had tricked him when asking the question.

The defendant said he was emotional at the time and had no idea of the seriousness of the question.

He said: “I told Police that I was going to strangle my wife using a pillow, but I was never going to strangle her.

“Just like if you are walking down the street and you see someone you admire or lust after, your desires will try to get you to role play in your mind whatever it is you're thinking about. But that's not to say that because you are thinking that, that is what your intentions are.”

He said: “I had wanted to kill myself. I felt I was going to kill myself. That's why my biked was parked there (hidden, outside the apartment), so when she came home, she would find me there dead.”

The defendant said he carried the knife because of the “life he had been living” since his separation. And he said, after sex, he picked the knife back up because he feared she would grab it and attack him with it.

He said she had hit him previously when he had had a drug problem.

And he said he honestly believed that when his wife said ‘no' to his sexual demands, she was only refusing his request for anal sex.He added: “I said to my wife that I was going to have sex with her anally. Up until that point, my wife was not struggling. It was only after I made that statement that my wife pulled away and said ‘please don't do that'.

“I told her ok, I wouldn't do that. There was no more struggling after that.”

But defending, lawyer Larry Mussenden asked the jury during his summation to use their “life experiences” of relationships and married life to put themselves in the defendant's shoes.

He said: “Have you ever loved anybody so much that it feels like you are walking on cloud nine...and you don't want to see a day when you don't have that person that you love? Have you ever loved so much that it hurts?

“The method he was going to use (to kill his wife) was pillows. Look at the photograph of the bedroom. I have (counted) four, at least, pillows on the bed. If his method is so believable, if that was his decision to go to the room, why not use the pillows?”

Yesterday, during her summation, Mrs. Smith told the jury not to consider whether they felt any sympathy for the attacker, or whether or not he was now remorseful.

She said: “If you know the difference between intention and something that was on your mind, why would he say that he intended to kill her. Why would he go on to explain to the Police how he was going to do it?” After the case, Mrs. Smith refused to comment on the verdict. However, Mr. Mussenden, afterwards, said he believed it was always clear that his client had never intended to kill his wife. He said: “I am pleased with the verdict from the jury. They did spend several hours deliberating.”

They also found that he did not seriously sexually assault his wife and that they could not be sure that there was a knife involved (in the attack) or a bad injury caused.”