Last updated at 14:17, Monday, 02 February 2009

A MAN has been jailed for attacking his girlfriend.

Neil Stevens, 37, of Park Avenue, Swarthmoor, assaulted Adelle Lupton on November 29.

He pleaded guilty to the offence and was sentenced to 100 days in prison at Furness Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Miss Lisa O’Loughlin, prosecuting, said the police had been called to an address in Towers Street in Ulverston in the afternoon after a report of a man “kicking off” in the house.

Ms Lupton, who said she had been in an on-off relationship with Stevens for five years, had gone out the day before and drunk three cans of cider.

He hadn’t been happy when she returned so she left him downstairs and went to bed.

When she got up, he was still angry with her for drinking and asked if she had picked up his prescription.

She asked him to leave and he started shouting and verbally abusing her and she asked him to leave again. Stevens asked for £20 and she refused.

Miss O’Loughlin said: “He threw a cup and glass against the wall and pushed her back on to the settee but she bounced back up.

“She tried to calm him down and asked him to leave but he put his left hand around her throat and pinned her against the settee.”

Stevens was removed from the house and arrested.

When interviewed, Stevens said he had stayed in with a friend and drunk a three-litre bottle of cider while Ms Lupton was out.

He said the next thing he remembered was waking up in police custody.

Mr Andrew Gibson, defending, said: “The pre-sentence report doesn’t leave me much to say.

“Mr Stevens disputes a lot of what is in the report and in fairness to him, I can confirm that he has always accepted his behaviour, although he has no recollection of the incident.”

District Judge Gerald Chalk told Stevens: “I have to send you to prison today.

“The aggravating features were that this was a breach of trust in assaulting your partner and also verbally abusing her.

“You also have previous convictions.

“I accept the violence was at the lower end and that’s why it was just 100 days.”

Mr Chalk said Stevens would serve half his sentence in prison and half in the community.

First published at 11:50, Monday, 02 February 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk