A STOURBRIDGE mother-of-four who left her ex-husband needing eight stitches in a facial wound when she hit him with a baseball bat has been spared a spell behind bars.

Kayleigh Palmer told police she "snapped" after she argued with Stephen Guest over arrangements about contact with their children, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Mr Guest told her he could not fulfil his commitments one weekend and she then turned up at his Castle Hill, Dudley home armed with the baseball bat.

She pointed the bat at her former partner as he argued with her boyfriend who had accompanied her to the house and

then suddenly struck him in the face.

Nicholas Smith, prosecuting, said Palmer told him, "You will have a scar and something to remember me by" as she

left him with a wound near an eyebrow.

He said the couple's four year marriage broke down in June 2016 and Mr Guest took responsibility for collecting the

children from school twice a week while also having them stay at his home.

But there were times when the arrangements broke down and Palmer once said she would go round and "kick his

head in" after she had to pick up the children.

Palmer, of Bredon Road, admitted wounding and she was given a 15 month jail term suspended for 15 months.

Recorder Martine Kushner told her: "You had time to think about what you were doing, you picked up this weapon

and you used it."

Andrew Mitchinson, barrister for the 31-year-old, stressed to the court there had been earlier problems between the

pair over contact arrangements with the children.

He said: "This was not an isolated case with her going round to his home out of the blue."

The Recorder was told Palmer was due to give birth to another baby in a matter of days, he said the prison sentence would be suspended because she was the main carer for her children and she had admitted her guilt.