Married couple given jail sentence for getting back together

A Spanish couple has been sentenced to prison for breaching a distancing order and reuniting after hitting a troubled patch in their marriage.

A court found the husband and wife guilty of breaching the order, which forbade them from coming within 500 metres of each other.

The pair, who have not been identified, separated in September 2008 and a court imposed the distancing order after repeated conflict between the two. The court banned the husband from approaching his wife or attempting to contact her under laws aimed at tackling domestic violence.

But last month, after a trial separation that lasted more than a year, the estranged pair decided to patch things up.

They were arrested when Civil Guard officers discovered them together in their home town of Motril in Andalusia on Spain's southern coast, although both claimed they were with each other by mutual agreement.

The man has been sentenced to six months in jail and his wife was found guilty of being his accomplice and given a lesser sentence of four months.