A WOMAN whose husband died after she drove on to a pavement and struck him following a row has walked free from court after being given a suspended prison sentence.

Mother-of-two Suzanne Knox had been out looking for her husband Anthony Knox and had their two young daughters in the car when she saw him sitting on a pavement in Woods Loke East in Lowestoft, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Knox had driven on to the pavement to talk to him and had collided with him. She contacted the emergency services and 30-year-old Mr Knox was rushed to hospital where he died several hours later from his injuries.

Knox, 26, of Hemsby, near Great Yarmouth, denied causing her husband's death by dangerous driving and was cleared by a jury after a trial last month.

She had admitted a less serious charge of death by careless driving before the start of the trial and yesterday she was given a nine -month jail sentence suspended for two years and banned from driving for one year for that offence.

She was also placed on supervision for 18 months, ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work in the community and to attend six sessions at a Women's Emotional Well Being programme.

Sentencing her, Judge Peter Thompson described what happened as a 'momentary misjudgement' and said: 'You plainly didn't intend to cause your husband harm.'

He said Knox had deliberately driven on to the pavement but this had been at a very low speed of around 10mph.

'You caused the death of your own husband. You have two daughters with him who will one day have the job of understanding how their own mother killed their father,' said Judge Thompson.

'I accept your remorse at the scene and afterwards is genuine,' he added.

During the trial the court heard that following the collision Knox was arrested and was in a police cell when a woman police officer broke the news of her husband's death to her.

Knox told police she hadn't intended to harm her husband and hadn't realised she had hit him until she got out of her car.

Steven Dyble, for Knox, said she had made a 'catastrophic error of judgement' when she pulled on to the pavement to talk to her husband. 'She didn't deliberately target him or try to scare him,' he said.

Mr Dyble said his client felt genuine remorse and had suffered post traumatic stress disorder since the incident.

He said she had two young children and urged the court not to take her away from them by sending her to prison.