A HUSBAND who shot his wife in the head with an air rifle after drinking two and a half bottles of Baileys Irish Cream was jailed.

Lloyd Williams left his partner “crying hysterically and covered in blood” after also using a bottle of the liqueur to smash the windows of car as she sat inside.

Newport Crown Court heard how the defendant had a history of domestic abuse and was jailed in 2009 for wounding another partner with a samurai sword.

Prosecutor Nuhu Gobir said Williams and his wife of two years were in an “on-off relationship” and that she had come to stay with him at his sister’s home at Medway Court in the Bettws area of the city.

But the pair had quarrelled on Sunday, November 11, 2018, as they drank Baileys while playing on a PlayStation.

She had downed half a pint of the liqueur.

Mr Gobir said Williams, aged 35, of Summerhill Avenue, Newport, had “become paranoid that someone was in the house and that the victim was getting someone to beat him up”.

The court heard that his wife “assured him this was not the case” and had gone to her mother’s Vauxhall Astra to smoke a cigarette.

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Mr Gobir said: “She heard noises nearby and saw that the defendant was shooting pellets at the car from an air gun from his bedroom window.”

He added that she got out and confronted him but as she did so, he shot her in the forehead.

His wife went back into the house to further challenge him before she returned to the car to leave.

The judge, Recorder Timothy Brennan QC, was told that the Williams followed her to the Astra and smashed a bottle of Baileys against two windows, causing his wife to be showered with broken glass, resulting in cuts to her face and forearm.

The defendant fled the scene before being arrested later that night at the Cross Keys pub in Newport.

Mr Gobir said Police Constable Jodie Smith found the victim in a neighbour’s house “crying hysterically and covered in blood”.

Ben Waters, mitigating, said his client had experienced an “out of his body episode” that day.

His barrister added: “He doesn’t know why he did it. He is remorseful for his actions.”

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Mr Waters said Williams’ wife had visited him in prison and that “they are trying to get through their issues together”.

He told the court that the defendant was on a medical wing in prison and was taking anti-psychotic medication.

The judge said his offending was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was justified and jailed him for two and a half years.

A deprivation order was made in regard to the .22 calibre rifle and Williams must also pay a victim surcharge upon his release from prison.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and destroying property.