Baseball bat-wielding mum gave ex 'scar to remember'

Kayleigh Palmer - who is due to give birth to another baby within days - "snapped" after a break down in child contact arrangements with Stephen Guest, a judge heard.

The couple's four-year marriage broke down in June 2016 and he took responsibility for collecting the children from school twice a week while having them to stay at his home in Castle Hill, Dudley, during weekends, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

But there were occasions when he could not fulfil those commitments and once she said she would come round and "kick his head in" after being landed with his duties, claimed Mr Nicholas Smith, prosecuting.

Then on Sunday March 10, during a weekend when the victim could not care for the children, she arrived on his doorstep armed with a baseball bat.

She pointed the weapon at him as he argued with her boyfriend, who had accompanied her to the meeting, it was said.

Mr Smith continued: "Suddenly she struck him in the face with the bat and told him: 'You will have a scar and something to remember me by.'"

The victim had eight stitches in an eyebrow wound and suffered from headaches for some time after the incident, the court heard.

Palmer was arrested the following day and confessed they had argued over the children aged between one and 13 years.

She also accepted taking the baseball bat with her to scare the victim but "snapped" and struck him once.

Mr Andrew Mitchinson, defending, said: "There had been other issues over contact. This was not an isolated case with her going round there out of the blue.

"It had been a drip, drip issue that finally boiled over. She admitted it should not have come to this."

Palmer from Bredon Road, Stourbridge admitted unlawfully wounding her ex partner. She was given a 15-month jail term suspended for 15 months and ordered to complete a rehabilitation programme.

Recorder Martine Kushner told her: "You had time to think about what you were doing, picked up a weapon and used it."

The guilty plea coupled with the defendant being prime carer for four children with another of the way meant the prison sentence could be suspended, said Ms Kushner.