THE North-East’s three police and crime commissioners are making an official complaint about a judge who spared a wife beater jail despite hearing how he had bitten, throttled and held a knife to her throat.

Vera Baird, Ron Hogg and Barry Coppinger, the PCCs for Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland, said the sentence passed on Anthony Bruce by Judge George Moorhouse “sent out totally the wrong message” and was unduly lenient.

Bruce, 34, who also shot the victim in the toe with a pellet gun, received a 12 month prison sentence at Teesside Crown Court, suspended for a year, after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intimidation

The three PCCs previously teamed up to launch the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, a 20 point plan to protect victims of violence and abuse.

They have now written to the Judicial Conduct and Investigations Office (JCIO) to complain about Judge Moorhouse.

However it seems unlikely any action will be taken against the veteran judge since the JCIO cannot investigate concerns about a judgement or sentence, merely the actual conduct of the judiciary.

It said it had yet to receive a formal complaint.

The Crown Prosecution Service has also conceded that it is impossible to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal on the grounds of leniency since the offences admitted do not fall within a limited schedule of offences that can be referred.

In their letter the PCCs said judges should undergo training to learn about the effects of domestic abuse.

Ms Baird, a former Solicitor General, said: "Judge Moorhouse does not appreciate that he has a role to play in stopping the epidemic crime of domestic violence.”

Bruce, of Greta Street North, Pelton, Chester-le-Street, who threatened to scald the mother-of-two with boiling water after his wife threatened to leave him, joked about his let-off as he left court on Tuesday.

Ms Baird said: “I don’t want victims of domestic abuse to be put off from telling the police.

“There are good judges who give verdicts that fit the crime and we need to make sure they are all of the same mindset.”

Judge Moorhouse, one of the longest serving judges on the North-East circuit, was on the bench as usual today, conducting court business in the morning.

He had commented that the victim’s injuries were not serious and also said that Bruce had not been in trouble with the law for seven years.