A DROITWICH man has been given a community order for punching his girlfriend in a drunken argument.
Andrew Thomas Brown, of Westbury Avenue, pleaded guilty at Worcester Magistrates’ Court on Friday (October 9) to assaulting his partner.
Kerry Lovegrove, prosecuting, told the court the 21-year-old went out to a bar with the victim on September 13 and when they returned home he fell asleep on the floor. She went in the kitchen and then came out to see Brown on the stairs spitting on the floor. Her friend had gone upstairs to use the bathroom so she asked Brown to move so the woman could get back down and to stop spitting.
The court heard he refused to move and the two got into a verbal argument. She tried to get him up and he pushed her to the floor. She tried again and he punched her in the mouth, leaving a cut on her lip. She swung back at him in retaliation and he pushed her again, so she called the police.
Defence solicitor, David Howarth, said: “It seems it was six of one and half a dozen of the other in this case.
“He clearly had too much to drink and curled up to go to sleep.
“If he had been left there alone there would not have been a problem.
“It is clear from her statement that she was rigorously trying the wake him up to go upstairs.
“He made it very clear he did not want to and she was quite vigorous and forceful.
“He accepts he waved out his arms to tell her to go away and regrets that it caught her in the face and he is remorseful for that.”
Chair of the bench, Charles Townsend, gave Brown a community order for nine months, with a ten-day rehabilitation requirement.
He was also fined £135 and ordered to pay a £60 victim surcharge, £135 in prosecution costs and a £150 court charge.
