MILLIONS of harmless messages meant for friends and family are posted by users every day on the Facebook website.

But in the case of Emma Brady's husband, his Facebook message could not have been more devastating.

It read: 'Neil Brady has ended his marriage to EmmaBrady.'

Mrs Brady, a 35-year-old conference manager, claimed she had no idea he had wanted a divorce, reported The Daily Mail.

However, Mr Brady insisted that she had been told before the message was posted. Earlier, Mr Brady, a 39-year-old IT consultant, was in court for assaulting her.

She said: 'The first I knew about it was when I received a phone call at work from my best friend, who lives in Denmark.

'She asked me if I was okay because of what Neil had put on Facebook: 'Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady'. I was shell-shocked.

'I have had people who I haven't spoken to for years contacting me asking what is going on.

'What upset me the most was not the fact that Neil had written he had ended his marriage, but the comment from a girl in Canada who said: 'You are better off out of it'. It hurt me that he had been speaking to someone else about it.'

After the message was posted last July, Mrs Brady said she confronted her hubby at home but he acted like everything was normal.

Magistrates heard that the Lancashire couple's six-year marriage came to a head five months later after a row in Christmas, reported Manchester Evening News.

Mr Brady claimed his wife had been seeing another man. In the row that followed, he injured her wrist and locked her in the back garden.

He pleaded guilty and was fined £580 ($1,300) and ordered to pay £100 compensation.

Mr Brady, who is now living with his mother, insists he had talked to his wife about separation.

He said: 'I've had enough of her.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Feb 7, 2009.