CELEBRITY gangster Dave Courtney has been cleared of beating up his wife in a row over an alleged lesbian affair with the former lover of an EastEnders star.

The self-confessed killer was accused of trying to throttle wife Jennifer Pinto, before cracking three ribs in a vicious body slam wrestling move after a row about a gas bill.

But gangster-turned-author Mr Courtney insisted Miss Pinto attacked him "like a banshee" after he published details of her alleged affair with another woman on his website. A relationship which she denies.

On June 11, a jury, at Inner London Crown Court, cleared him of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, on May 9, last year.

The court heard from Mr Courtney how he, Miss Pinto and Miss Bostock ex-lover of Steve McFadden, who plays EastEnders hardman Phil Mitchell were having a three way sexual relationship. The 44-year-old told police officers Miss Bostock had been a "wedding present" from his wife.

However, 18 months ago, the gangster was hospitalised for five months following a car crash after which, he says, the two women had become closer and plotted to run off "into the sunset" together.

He told the jury, of six men and six women, his rapper wife attacked him in their bedroom and, when he tried to restrain her, he lost his balance and fell on top of her.

He said: "She started laughing and shouting like I'd just given her a winning Lottery ticket and said: Thank you, now I have a reason to leave you' but she had attacked me like a banshee."

Their five-year-old daughter Courtney de Courtney was playing downstairs in the family's living room at the time.

Relaxing in the garden of his home, Camelot Castle, Chestnut Rise, Plumstead, after being cleared Mr Courtney, told News Shopper: "I'm hurt it has come to this. I cannot understand why she Miss Pinto did it. I used to worship the ground she walked on but now she has sold herself down the river."

Mr Courtney served time in Belmarsh Prison for attacking five Chinese waiters with their own meat cleaver in 1981.

Eight years later he was acquitted of a gangland murder only to brazenly admit on the steps of the court he was, in fact, guilty.

Since splitting with his wife Mr Courtney has been dating 23-year-old model Taz Taylor.