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A little boy wrote to his dad begging him not to hurt his mother again after he witnessed him kicking her 20 times as she lay on the floor.

Stephen Carter, 36, broke his estranged wife Amanda’s arm after knocking her down and laying into her in a “barbaric” fashion.

The couple’s traumatised son Oliver, seven, heard the onslaught from his bedroom and later wrote his emotional note which made his father cry, a court was told.

He wrote: “Daddy, please don’t ever do this to mummy again.”

Carter, from Whitstable, Kent, admitted assault and was given a nine-month suspended sentence at Canterbury crown court.

Judge Simon James said: “This was a cowardly and sustained attack on the mother of your children.

"Your son was so concerned he felt compelled to write to you.

"You will have to live with the shame of what you did for the rest of your life.”

The court heard how Carter was babysitting in October last year while his 33-year-old estranged wife went to work.

As he slept on the sofa after 10 pints of beer, Mrs Carter went through his text messages and found he was in a new relationship.

She threw the phone at her husband, hitting him on the nose and making it bleed.

As she apologised, Carter launched his ferocious attack, kicking her as she pleaded for him to stop.

She described her injuries as “more painful than childbirth”.

The couple’s marriage fell apart after seven years in 2011 amid allegations of drinking and cheating.

They shared custody of Oliver and sister, aged three.

Carter walked free after the judge heard the couple were hoping for a reconciliation.