A JEALOUS businessman threatened his wife with a knife because he couldn't stand seeing her with another man, a court heard.

Peter Gunn, 67, from Five Mile Drive, north Oxford, was yesterday convicted of assault after the incident during which he had confronted his wife over an alleged affair.

Gunn, who appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ court yesterday, married his wife in 2007 but had been in a relationship with her for 30 years.

The couple, who are in the process of getting divorced, own several businesses together including City Audio Visual in Hinksey Road, which supplies lighting and sound equipment for stage productions at venues including Oxford University colleges.

The assault took place on March 11, when Mr Gunn saw his wife with a man, named only as Mr Ricardo, in an Oxford guest house which the Gunns owned and which had previously been their family home.

Mr Astley, defending, said Gunn had seen the two together before but "knowing that they had been spending time together in their old family home got the better of him, leading to events which he [Gunn] described as being 'just a spur of the moment'."

He said Gunn went to the guest house seeking to frighten Mr Ricardo but insisted he had not intended to cause any harm to him or his wife.

The court heard that when Gunn entered the house, he approached his wife shouting: “Get him out, get him out, I want him out. I’m not going to let him take everything we worked for.”

The court heard that Mr Ricardo, who was said to have been in a relationship with Mrs Gunn for six years, locked himself in a room, while Mrs Gunn was in the kitchen with her husband who became very threatening.

Mr Astley said: "He then picked up a knife and held it close to her, but only for a matter of minutes. Once Mr Gunn went to the locked room that Mr Ricardo was in, his wife called the police and he put the knife down.

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"Mr Gunn admitted assault and said he had no intention to use the knife but accepts that he acted recklessly holding it in close proximity to his wife, which would have caused her to be frightened."

In a police interview read out to the court, Gunn said: “It was just something that shouldn’t have happened.”

The court heard that the defendant is not in good health and has many conditions including cystic fibrosis.

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His wife had applied for a restraining order but the magistrate, Stephen Vickers, denied this. He said: “We don’t see your relationship as one that holds extreme danger or threats. We are trusting that you will not betray our trust in living close together.”

Gunn had been living in a family holiday flat in Selsey, Sussex, and travelled two and a half hours to work in Oxford every day.

Mr Vickers said a restraining order would have complicated their divorce proceedings. He fined him £1,000 and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £100 as well as a court cost of £250.

Two of Gunn's daughters attended the summary trial yesterday.