A GRIEVING husband who lost his wife to cancer only weeks after their wedding must fly to Latvia this weekend to fight allegations he assaulted a police officer.

Matt Neale, 36, has already been cleared of the offence twice, but must return to the Baltic state again for yet another appeal hearing.

As reported in The Press, Matt, from Acomb, married Charelle in September, shortly after they were told by doctors she only had a few weeks left to live.

Following her death on October 1, he asked the court in Riga to postpone the upcoming hearing, but the request was turned down.

Matt, who works as a structural engineer, said: “What can I do? Now Charelle’s gone, no time is going to be a good time.”

Matt has been embroiled in a legal fight with the Latvian courts since 2008, when he was accused of attacking a police officer in a bar scuffle in Riga.

He was extradited to Latvia and even spent ten weeks in a Riga jail last year awaiting trial.

Matt said: “It has wrecked the past two years of my life and when I was in jail they took away two months of my time with Charelle.

“I don’t want to go back. I’ve already been proven innocent twice and they don’t have any new evidence. It’s something I shouldn’t be doing.

“I’ve got nobody here to support me now. Charelle was my rock, but I haven’t got her any more.

“It’s hard to say the least, but you’ve just got to keep going. Either that or you just crumble.”

Matt said even if he was acquitted during Monday’s hearing, the prosecution would still have one last chance to appeal.

Charelle, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in March, left behind two children – Georgia, eight, and Cameron, 12.