A MAN who attacked his wife with a knife after she told him their marriage was over escaped a jail sentence yesterday.

Salih Calis and his wife, Michelle, have been reunited since the attack, in December last year, and yesterday a judge at Teesside Crown Court was told that she did not want her husband to be prosecuted.

Calis, 26, admitted wounding his wife at their home, in Front Street, Sowerby, near Thirsk, when she returned from an evening out.

Judge Tony Briggs sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

The judge told Calis: "Anyone who attacks their wife with a knife, for whatever reason, faces an inevitable prison sentence."

Philip Crayton, prosecuting, said the couple had met when Mrs Calis was on holiday in Turkey.

They were married in July 1997 and, after the birth of their child, returned to live in England last year.

There were problems with the marriage after their arrival in England and, as they adjusted to a different way of life, arguments developed.

In November, Mrs Calis told her husband their marriage was over, said Mr Crayton.

But when she returned home after an evening out the following month, Calis appeared agitated, accused her of seeing another man and then struck her repeatedly with a knife, said Mr Crayton.

Mrs Calis suffered superficial cuts in the incident.

In mitigation, Rod Hunt, said that immediately after the attack, Calis was remorseful. He went to the police station in Thirsk and made a telephone call from outside informing officers he had attacked his wife.

Calis had spent the equivalent of a 12-month sentence in prison on remand awaiting trial.

The couple are now back together again and are both working full-time.

Mrs Calis had accepted she contributed to Calis' lack of control, said Mr Hunt.

He said: "Whatever she said or did, no one deserves to be stabbed.