A MAN grabbed his girlfriend by the neck and smashed her front door scaring her children when he was drunk, a court was told.

John Wade appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to common assault against Leah Farney and criminal damage valued at £30 to the glass pane in her door.

Frederick Pilkington, prosecuting, said Wade, who suffered with mental health problems, arrived at Miss Farney’s house at about 7.15pm on Wednesday, October 2, after having been to the pub. He had with him a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey which he started to drink in shots.

Miss Farney’s daughters, who were aged seven and 13, were also in the house at the time, when some friends arrived to help her fit a television on to the wall.

Mr Pilkington said Wade started shouting obscenities. “He then ran up to her and grabbed her around the neck and her friend got up,” he said. The assault left Miss Farney with three finger-mark bruises to her neck.

Miss Farney left the address before returning at 10pm. She later heard someone tapping on the window and shouting through the letter box.

“She opened the inside door and walked to the front door to tell him to go home,” said Mr Pilkington. “He said he needed a taxi and she said she would call one. He then told her to let him in and punched through the pane of glass in the front door. Her daughters were scared.”

David Howarth, in mitigation, said Wade, aged 33, of Suffield Close, Bransford, near Worcester, had been drinking and suffered from paranoia because he was finding it difficult to cope with the stress he was feeling from a welding course he had been attending at a local college.

District judge Nigel Cadbury accepted the incident was out of character for Wade as he had no previous convictions of that sort on his record.

He was given a 12- month community order to undertake 80 hours of unpaid work with nine months of supervision.

The judge also imposed £85 in costs and a £60 victim surcharge. There were no representations made for compensation for the assault .