A JILTED husband punched his cheating wife’s new rugby player lover after catching them in bed together.
David Lukey was on a trial separation from wife Andrea when she started up a fling with burly Chris Andrews.
David Lukey punched his estranged wife’s new lover[/caption]
The 47-year-old, who had been living in a tent so Andrea could stay at home with their two kids, had entered the house to do his laundry when he caught the pair in bed.
Lukey pleaded guilty to assault after punching Chris in the face and was handed a community order.
But he was dragged back to Bournemouth Crown Court accused of threatening to destroy or damage property.
It came after he allegedly told his brother-in-law: “If Chris steps foot in my house again I will kill him and burn the house down and take the kids.”
Lukey has now been found not guilty of the charge following a trial.
He later lashed out at the Crown Prosecution Service for wasting taxpayer money and “dragging it all up” again.
Jurors heard the aerospace engineer and his wife had previously agreed to a trial separation after having marriage difficulties.
Lukey had been living in a tent for six weeks but was continuing to pay the mortgage and bills.
On September 20, 2023, he went to the family home in Blandford, Dorset, to do laundry when he found Andrea and Chris in a state of undress.
Lukey said: “The year began with discovering my wife was having an affair, by the end of the year I had lost my partner of 14 years, my house, my pets, and most heartbreakingly no longer lived with my children.
“I had moved into a tent six weeks earlier when Andrea asked me to move out for a trial separation.
“I returned to the house, believing it would be empty. I caught them in my house, in our marital bed, which destroyed me.
“I gave Chris the chance to leave, but Andrea stopped him and goaded me saying ‘this isn’t your house, this is my house, you have no right to be here’. This was a house I was still paying the mortgage and bills for.
“I tried to take my frustration out on objects not people, she continued to goad me. I said ‘if you don’t get out I’m going to punch Chris in the face’, so I did, I punched him.
“That night I was released from cells and was told Ian was my point of contact to see my children.”
He was then accused of making the chilling threat in a phonecall the next day to Andrea’s brother Ian Donegan.
Ian told the court he tried to “calm down the situation” and urged Lukey “not to do anything stupid”.
Lukey said: “When [the police] told me what the threats were, I was in total shock. This was a house I had put myself through hell to keep a roof over my kids’ heads.
“I accept if I have done something, I accept responsibility for my actions. That night was the worst night of my life, I couldn’t stop picturing what I had seen, by the next day I had a complete mental breakdown.
“I think if you put anyone who has been struggling so hard, living in a tent, and dropped them into that house they are paying for to find their wife in bed with another man, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say someone might punch that man.
“It was wrong and I have paid the price for it, but I’ve served my sentence.”
Lukey was convicted of assault but cleared of threatening to burn the family home down[/caption]
