CONSTRUCTION worker Jack Stanley Kent spat in his former partner's face as she was holding a baby.

He then grabbed her by the throat and pushed her onto a bed.

Kent, 23, then clenched his fist as if he was going to punch her to the face but she managed to get free and push him away.

When she closed the door he punched it, causing two holes, said prosecuting barrister Hannah Gordon.

Kent, of Glynne Street in Connah's Quay, admitted assaulting Hannah Bailey on November 20 and causing criminal damage to the door.

Appearing at North East Wales Magistrates Court he was placed on a 12 month community order with 25 days rehabilitation.

He was ordered to carry out 60 hours unpaid work and to pay £100 compensation for the door with £400 costs.

A two-year restraining order was made not to enter the home of mother-of-five Miss Bailey in Boundary Lane, Saltney.

The Mold court heard Kent had returned to the house after he had been out drinking.

He accepted in interview that there was an argument and he had lost his temper.

Magistrates were told there had been no injuries but it was an assault on a woman in her own home.

In a victim impact statement she said he made her feel worthless.

She wanted a restraining order so that he could not go to her home.

But she was happy for him to have contact with the baby and she would take the baby to his father's home to enable contact to take place.

Probation officer Lisa Harris said that the defendant himself described the 18 month relationship as toxic and he accepted that there had been heated altercations, although he denied any previous violence had taken place.

He accepted he had a somewhat shorter fuse when he drank to excess.