A man has been found guilty of raping his wife after refusing to accept their marriage was over.

The 42-year-old, who admitted hitting her with a hammer in August 2014, was also found guilty of threatening to kill her.

The man gave very little reaction when the jurors came back with its guilty verdicts, but his wife was overcome with emotion when she realised they believed her version of events over his.

She claimed he threatened her with a large kitchen knife on the night of May 25 2014 before ordering her upstairs where she said he forced her to have sex with him.

In his evidence, he said he was making a sandwich with a butter knife and denied even having sex with her that night.

He has now been found guilty of raping his wife, of making one threat to kill her and two threats to cause her serious harm.

This afternoon’s verdicts came in after nine hours of deliberations but the jury still has to consider an allegation that he head butted her on their son’s birthday and made another threat to seriously harm her.