A FIERY farm worker escaped jail after her estranged husband pleaded for her to be allowed to carry on milking his cows - despite suffering a "thorough beating" from her new boyfriend.

Donna Bibbey, 44, was "invaluable" in her job at husband Philip's farm in Hunnington, near Halesowen, said Judge Robert Juckes QC.

The judge, sitting at Worcester Crown Court, said: "It's a most unusual situation - because we know from this kind of situation much more serious things can erupt."

He added he could have imposed a short prison sentence on her, although the offences she admitted - assault and driving while disqualified - happened last year.

The judge ordered her to spend 12 months under probation supervision, with 15 days at a group project to help her to avoid losing self control and 125 hours of unpaid work in the community.

She was also ordered to pay £600 costs and a £60 victim impact surcharge and was banned from driving for 15 months.

It would enable her not only to work for her husband but also to live at his home, Oatenfields Farm.

The judge added: "Although you didn't strike the blows yourself, you were in a very real sense responsible for them."

Judge Juckes said the boyfriend had given Mr Bibbey a "very thorough beating".

A previous court hearing heard Bibbey and her husband had a row earlier in the day and, ignoring a driving ban imposed for excess alcohol, she drove back to the farm with her boyfriend, Daniel Cook.

She went into the living room, where Mr Bibbey, who had a double hip replacement a few months earlier, was sitting with his feet on the sofa.

Bibbey punched him on the nose and ran from the room - but Cook then kicked the door off its hinges, knocked Mr Bibbey to the floor and kicked him on the back and legs.

Mr Bibbey followed Cook into the kitchen and Cook pushed him so that he fell face first into the shelves of a Welsh dresser, Alex Warren, prosecuting, told the earlier hearing.

A cup hook stuck into Mr Bibbey's face, near his left eye, and he needed stitches as well as suffering a broken nose, black eye and bruising.

Cook said he had heard Donna Bibbey scream while he was waiting outside and thought she had been assaulted by her husband.

Richard Hull, defending, said Bibbey wanted to move on with her life and her ultimate aim, when she could drive again, was to find another job.

At the previous hearing, in December, Cook, 33, of Aire Croft, Birmingham, was jailed for 12 months after admitting assault causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage.