A POLICE Commissioner has spoken of her outrage after a brute who held a knife to his wife’s throat and shot her with a pellet gun during a sustained attack walked free with a suspended sentence.

Vera Baird said it was “unbelievable” that 34-year-old Anthony Bruce had escaped jail after subjecting his wife to a terrifying ordeal at their County Durham home.

Earlier this week, The Northern Echo revealed that Bruce received a 12-month suspended prison sentence at Teesside Crown Court after holding an eight-inch blade to his wife’s throat, threatened to scald her and shot her in the toe after threatening to put a bullet in her brain.

Although there was widespread outrage at the leniency of the sentence, the Crown Prosecution Service revealed it is powerless to appeal under existing legislation.

Ms Baird, Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, said: “I am appalled at this sentence which sends out the most negative message.

“How can we expect anyone who is the victim of this kind of violence to come forward for help when they see courts handing down such offensive sentences?

“We must never underestimate the courage it takes anyone who is a victim of domestic or sexual abuse to take that first step to help when many can feel that what is happening is their fault.

“What effect will this sentence have on terrified people who have nowhere to go because their assailant is their partner and the crime scene is their own home?”

Bruce, from Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intimidation, but laughed and joked as he left court, later posting on Facebook: "The **** did not win . . . I am free."

The court had heard that his victim has had to move to a secret address miles away and said she feared for her life during the "life-changing" attack in April 2013.

Ms Baird, former solicitor general and MP for Redcar, said: “The courts need to be sending out the right message in these cases – they must realise that the impact of a sentence like this is not confined to that one case, but has a ripple effect which is felt by every person suffering at the hands of a partner.”

She added: “I’m also aware of the potential damage this kind of sentence can have on the confidence of our communities and I want to reassure anyone suffering from domestic or sexual abuse that there is help out there for them when they are ready to seek it out.”