A TIDWORTH soldier beat his wife and accused her of being unfaithful, despite having fathered two children from an affair of his own, a court heard.

Thobani Mbanjwa, 27, hit his childhood sweetheart Nomfundo and grabbed her by the throat during a late-night row in which a radiator was ripped off the wall.

He had previously thrown her laptop out of a window, smashing it.

Salisbury Magistrates Court heard on Friday, that the pair had been married for six years, and had originally met at school in South Africa.

Their relationship was described as “very good and loving”, but when he was posted to Afghanistan in September 2011, she received text messages saying he had been unfaithful, and it was soon revealed that he had two children from an affair.

On the night of December 13, Mbanjwa was late picking his wife up from work.

He had a friend with him, and “smelled of alcohol”.

When they got home and she declined to join him in the shower, Mbanjwa called her a bitch, and said that she did not love him anymore.

He took her computer and threw it out of the window, before the couple struggled on the bedroom floor.

Mrs Mbanjwa thought she would be killed, the court heard, and expected her husband’s friends to come into the room and intervene, but no help came.

The police soon arrived after a call from a neighbour, and said that Mrs Mbanjwa had a swollen cheek.

In a statement read to the court, she said: “He has made me feel worthless, I am struggling with motivation and I cry a lot of the time.

“When I close my eyes I see his face, and I cannot sleep at night.”

Defending, Ann Ellery said Mbanjwa would be punished by the army and had bought his wife another laptop.

Magistrate Linda Raine said that his role as a forward observer had spared him a more serious sentence.

Mbanjwa, of Connolly Way, Tidworth, was ordered to pay compensation of £100, and given a 24-month community order, forbidding him from contacting his wife.