A High Court judge has ruled that a woman from south Bucks who posted on Facebook that her ex-husband tried to kill her had made a “significant and distorted overstatement” of the facts.

In a landmark case, Ronald Stocker, 65, claimed former wife Nicola's online suggestion that he tried to strangle her was motivated by malice as their marriage broke down.

He was suing his Mrs Stocker, a three-day eventer and B&B owner from Longwick, near Princes Risborough, for libel over posts on the social networking site and was vindicated yesterday when a top judge found he had not tried to kill her.

Mrs Stocker, 48, insisted that he had attacked and tried to throttle her during a row in 2003.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Mitting said the Facebook post was a “significant and distorted overstatement” of what really happened.

It had painted a picture of Mr Stocker, of Aston Clinton, Bucks, as a “dangerous man”, which was not true, he continued.

The judge said he would have awarded £5,000 libel damages - but that Mr Stocker had decided he did not want a payout.

Defending them in the witness box, the horsewoman insisted that her husband was a sometimes violent man, who had snapped and strangled her.

He told her he was going to kill her, she told the judge, and left her with painful reddening to her throat afterwards.

In his evidence, Mr Stocker denied strangling his wife, saying he had only put a hand to her mouth to silence her.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice Mitting said: “I don't believe that he threatened to kill her or did anything with his hands with that intention.

“I don't think he was capable, even in temper, of attempted murder.”

He had more likely caused the red marks by holding Mrs Stocker as he tried to stop her waking their child, he said.

Ruling that the Facebook comments were defamatory, he said: “The impression given was a significant and distorted overstatement of what had in fact occurred.

“The libel was not trivial. Painting the false picture that he was a dangerous man to the Facebook friends of Mrs Bligh was intended to be and was damaging to his reputation.”

The judge said each party had “much to commend them as people” - Mr Stocker a highly successful businessman and Mrs Stocker a self-reliant woman who had borne a serious illness with courage.

But speaking of the circumstances surrounding their divorce, he added: “Each behaved towards the other in a manner which does no credit to either of them.”

The trial was unique as it is the first in which alleged libellous remarks have been made on a third party’s Facebook page.