A man from Uphill has been ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work after he left his ex-partner bruised and bleeding from the head following a fight in his home.

Weston Mercury: North Somerset Courthouse.North Somerset Courthouse. (Image: Archant)

North Somerset Courthouse was told how Sam Franklin, aged 24, returned to his home to find his ex-partner there.

He had been out drinking on the night in November last year, but did not expect his former girlfriend to be at the home, in Portishead, as she had moved out a week earlier.

The woman said in a statement read out in court on Thursday: “He appeared very aggressive and was swaying. I was very scared. From the beginning Sam was very aggressive.”

The pair got into an argument, which turned violent.

A witness statement read out in court by prosecutor Peter Ashby said there was blood on the wall from where one of them had hit their head.

The victim told police she had bruises on her face, blood on her forehead and she had been bitten by Franklin.

Mitigating, David Bird, told magistrates Franklin was of previous good character.

He said: “Good sense would have been he did not go in to the address, but good sense unfortunately goes out of the window when alcohol has been consumed. It was an unexpected meeting between them.

“The defendant also had injuries. Photographs suggest he had a cut above his eye, and a bite mark on his arm.”

Sentencing him, magistrates said: “Assaulting and giving injury to someone is always a serious matter, and doing that to someone in a domestic context is an even more serious matter.”

Franklin, of Thornbury Road, Uphill, was sentenced to a 120 hours of unpaid work, and ordered to pay £600 in compensation to his former partner.

He was also ordered to pay court costs of £135 and an £85 victim surcharge.