Former Street star to 'beat the bottle'

The actor spoke out after Sandra, his wife of 26 years, was forced to give evidence against him at court.

Jones, who played Les Battersby in the ITV soap for 10 years, was accused of subjecting her to years of drunken abuse.

Yesterday he admitted drunkenly yanking the wheel of their Mercedes M Class car from her hand as she drove along a busy dual carriageway and shouting he would kill them both.

He was banned from driving at Mold Crown Court and bailed to return for sentencing next month after admitting dangerous and drunken driving.

Jones, who was two-and-a-half times the legal limit during the incident last August, issued a statement through his barrister Dominic D'Souza.

Outside court the lawyer said: "Mr Jones accepts for the first time that he has an alcohol problem which he needs to address.

"It is one that has caused him significant problems over the last five or six years and resulted finally in him being in this situation. He very much wants to address this with privacy and get his life together and save a marriage that has lasted over 26 years.

"He is very regretful at having his wife subjected to cross-examination in court and found the whole experience very distressing."

Jones, 57, who appeared in court under his real name of Ian Roy Jones, was almost half way through a trial when the jury were discharged because of a legal issue.

He had the option of going for a retrial but decided against it – not wanting to force his long suffering wife to give evidence again, his barrister said.

"There are no circumstances in which he would wish her to go through that again," said Mr D'Souza, so he changed his pleas.

An allegation of assault by grabbing Mrs Jones's arm lies on file.

Mrs Jones was driving their Mercedes along the A55 near Holywell, in Flintshire, North Wales, when drunken Jones became angry.

He yanked the steering wheel up and down but Mrs Jones managed to

wrestle it back and stopped the car safely at a nearby pub.