An aristocrat has been jailed for two years after admitting beating his wife over a 22-year period.
Lord Edward Somerset, 55, the son of the Duke of Beaufort, admitted four counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm between 1990 and 2012.
Lady Caroline suffered bruising, scratching, pulled hair and a fractured finger during the attacks which took place in their home on the Badminton Estate in Gloucestershire.
Somerset became enraged and assaulted his wife when she confronted him about his addiction to drink and drugs, including heroin and cocaine, Bristol Crown Court heard.
In 2011, she received an “incredibly hard” kick to her foot after challenging her husband when he moved a new girlfriend into their home while they were married.
She required hospital treatment last year from two attacks during an argument with her husband after he took crack cocaine in front of their youngest daughter.
Judge Mark Horton jailed the peer, who appeared gaunt and dishevelled in the dock, for two years, telling him that the attacks left Lady Caroline in “emotional turmoil”. “This is a case of two tragedies,” the judge said.
“A tragedy of a man born to privilege and almost limitless opportunities whose life has been marred and destroyed by an addiction to alcohol and drugs and an uncontrollable temper.
“The tragedy with which the court is concerned is the tragedy caused to your wife by you over a period of 22 years by your repeated and deliberate violence.
“You abused your position of power over your wife, not only physically but, more importantly, by psychological and emotional damage caused by that physical control.”
He also imposed a restraining order to protect Lady Caroline, who is in Australia, from her estranged husband. Somerset remained emotionless as the sentence was passed. Divorce proceedings between the couple, who have two daughters, Francesca and Rose, are due to be finalised in the near future.
