SHANE Fitzpatrick was a violent man who repeatedly hit his wife during almost 20 years together and hospitalised her more than once.

But Fitzpatrick, who worked at Calder Print, Burnley, until his arrest, said the violent behaviour was something he had put behind him as a young man and was not the way he behaved any longer.

He said he was "deeply ashamed" of hitting his ex-wife Debbie.

At Fitzpatrick's trial, James Goss QC, prosecuting, said the relationship between the defendant and his ex-wife was central to the case.

Fitzpatrick said he still loved the mother of his three children, but was not in love with her.

He also denied claims he "held a grudge" against her new boyfriend.

Fitzpatrick first met his future wife when she was married to her first husband, Andrew Yates.

He was only 17 and the next year, his first child, Callum was born.

Debbie, who is four years older than Fitzpatrick, already had a daughter, Lucy, and divorced her first husband in 1987.

The couple moved in together in Maudsley Street, Accrington, where they lived for a short time before moving to Owen Street in the town.

They had two more children, Charlotte, who is now 15, and Chloe, 10, and married in 1995. They divorced in August 2004.

Over the years they were together Fitzpatrick was frequently violent.

On one occasion, before they were married, Debbie fell down the stairs at their home in Owen Street after an argument late at night. She had to go to hospital.

Also in the period before they were married, the couple began arguing after he thought she was having an affair. They both struck each other and Fitzpatrick, who was a member of the Clayton Runners athletics club, slapped his then-girlfriend so hard that she required hospital treatment.

According to Fitzpatrick there were "numerous other incidents."

In court he said: "I am not proud of that at all, I am ashamed of it.

"We were very young when we met and I feel that played a big part in how volatile our relationship was."

In a bid to put all of their problems behind them the couple moved to Lyndale Road, Hapton, in 1997 and there were no further incidents of violence until 2003.

After a night out in Accrington they began arguing over a pizza takeaway and Mrs Fitzpatrick ended up being dumped out of a taxi and left on the roadside.

Fitzpatrick admitted that their relationship never recovered and they separated in February 2004.

Callum stayed with his dad in Hapton and Charlotte and Chloe moved with their mother to Spencer Street, Accrington.

Fitzpatrick admitted that family tensions reached such a height that in Christmas 2004 he did not buy his daughters presents.