A 50-year-old Upton Park man who told his wife he was going to “cut her up” while brandishing a knife in their Barking home will not go to prison but instead carry out 200 hours’ community service.

Munir Iqbal, of Credon Road, had previously been found guilty of two counts of common assault and was sentenced on Thursday, September 5 at Barkingside Magistrates' Court.

On January 23 this year police officers were called to Iqbal's then-family home in Wakering Road, Barking.

Iqbal had, during a heated row with his wife in the pair's bedroom, gone to his home's kitchen and retrieved a knife.

He had also shouted at her: "You're doing too much. I will kill you.

"I will cut you up."

During their investigation police officers discovered a similar incident had also occurred on January 2.

Iqbal denied the alleged offences had ever occurred, but was found guilty at a previous hearing at the same court on August 28.

The court heard the issues between the couple stemmed from a row in 2017 when Iqbal's wife accused him of having an affair with a family friend.

Since then, they had lived under the same roof but had not had any kind of relationship.

The court was told that things had deteriorated to the point that, in early January, Iqbal confiscated all of his family's documentation and repeatedly harassed his wife to give him money.

Iqbal again denied this had ever happened.

A presentencing probation services report ordered by the court concluded: "Mr Iqbal displays many of the characteristics of men who perpetrate domestic violence."

As mitigation, the court heard the shouting at his wife had been "in the heat of the moment".

The court heard he was a man of previous good character and had abided by the terms of a non-molestation order imposed upon him by the courts immediately after the incident, and hadn't contacted his family at all since.

Iqbal was placed under a 12-month community order, with the requirement to attend 15 days of rehabilitation activities and to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He was also ordered to pay the courts £435.

As Iqbal still refused to accept the offences for which he had been convicted had even happened, he was not deemed suitable for a domestic violence awareness course.