Man avoids prison for punching his girlfriend

JUDGE STOPS SHORT OF ISSUING RESTRAINING ORDER

- CARL JACKSON News Reporter

A THUG punched his girlfriend in the face for lying about where she had been the previous night.

Phillip Collins assaulted his girlfriend and then struck her female friend after she tried to intervene, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Before, he had smashed doors in a rage fuelled by four cans of cider.

Then, after his arrest, he was bailed but ignored conditions not to contact her by making calls, sending texts and threatening to smash up her property.

Collins' partner, who has been with him for 15 years, remained supportive of him at court having dismissed what happened as “silly”.

But Simon Drew KC warned them both not to repeat the incident if he did not impose a restraining order restricting their contact.