Ex- player hit wife in affair row
A WIFE needed staples to a head wound after being attacked by her former Sunderland- striker husband when he admitted an affair.
Paul Conlon, 35, who was signed by the Black Cats in 1996, was handed a suspended sentence by city magistrates after admitting two counts of assault.
Jeanette Conlon and her daughter Chloe Nicholson were injured on the evening of March 15, after a row when Conlon admitted he was seeing another woman.
The court heard Mrs Conlon needed hospital treatment for a head wound, while her daughter suffered bruising after she stepped in to help her mother.
Conlon, of Bowood Close, Tunstall, denied the charges, but changed his pleas to guilty on the day of his trial.
Magistrates sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment on each count, to be served concurrently, suspended for 18 months with supervision.
The bench also told him to pay £ 300 and £ 100 in compensation to Mrs Conlon and Miss Nicholson respectively, and £ 450 costs.
In mitigation, Conlon’s solicitor Chris Wilson said 10 years had passed since his client had last been in trouble with the law and the argument arose from “a number of emotional issues”.
Conlon, who started with Hartlepool United, made appearances for Sunderland AFC’s youth side, but failed to make the first team and was released.
He then played for Doncaster Rovers, and in 2004 was banned from the game for life by Durham FA for striking a referee in a non- league game.