A £90,000-a-year executive who branded his wife with an iron after she failed to press his shirt has been sacked from his job.

Colin Read, of Neaves Lane, Ringmer, has been fired from his lucrative role within London-based LEK Consulting.

The 25-year-old also stabbed wife Elizabeth Axe, 25, with a knife while she slept because she refused to make his sandwiches.

The former Brighton, Hove and Sussex VI Form College student walked free from London's Southwark Crown Court with a £2,000 fine last month.

His two-year career with the company, which has offices in 18 cities worldwide, ended on August 31.

John Seaston, a partner at LEK, said: "Mr Read has been dismissed.

"This is the result of disciplinary procedures, which we could not put into place until the verdict.

"We commenced a formal disciplinary process and the outcome was we decided to dismiss him."

Read's wife Elizabeth, a medical student, has filed for divorce and has reverted to her maiden name Axe.

The couple had met as students at Cambridge University in 2003, where he read engineering and rowed for his college, and she was a sciences student.

Later they moved to London, where she began medical training at King's College and is now in her second year.

They moved into a flat in Herne Hill and married in June 2006.

Read began working for management firm LEK Consulting in 2005 and was soon reaping the financial rewards.

But he put in 17-hour days and his moods darkened whenever he returned home.

He first attacked his wife last September 19 when he returned home and found his wife had not made his sandwiches for the next day.

Enraged, he slashed her foot with a knife as she lay sleeping.

When she complained, Read responded by beating her with his fists.

The next day he beat again when she tried to speak to him about what happened.

On September 28, Read complained that a shirt printed with palm trees, which he needed for a corporate beach party function, was unironed.

He lashed out again, branding his wife twice on the back with the iron.

He pressed so hard that the iron's steam holes were burnt into her flesh.

Mrs Read stood under a cold shower for half an hour and then attended lectures because she was too scared to call the police.

After being convicted of three counts of causing actual bodily harm, The Argus tracked him down to his parent's posh £600,000 home in Ringmer.

The former Ringmer Community College pupil came to the front door unshaven and dressed in a scruffy T-shirt and jeans but refused to comment.