A WESTON man has been handed a suspended prison sentence after assaulting his girlfriend while he was drunk.

Nigel Palmer was arrested on December 13 after police were called to a house in Windermere Avenue in the early hours of the morning.

The house belongs to Palmer’s 20-year-old girlfriend, Loretta Marshall, who fled the scene with the couple’s three-year-old son.

When police found her at the house of Palmer’s parents, she had bruising to one eye and reddening to her skin on her face and neck.

Palmer, aged 24 of Rydall Road, was arrested on suspicion of assault and taken to Weston Police Station.

He pleaded guilty to assault at a court hearing the following day.

At North Somerset Courthouse on January 6, the court heard that Palmer was drunk and had been smoking cannabis at the time and said he could not remember anything that happened at Loretta’s house.

Judith Mills, defending, said: “The first thing that Mr Palmer told me was that he has a serious drink problem and that he needs help. He doesn’t want this to continue.”

During the court hearing, magistrates were told that since March 2008, police had been called to other incidents involving Mr Palmer and his girlfriend including arguments and alleged assaults.

When Palmer committed this latest assault, he was already serving a suspended prison sentence, for which he may now be recalled to Bristol Crown Court.

Magistrates sentenced Palmer to a 22-week prison sentence suspended for two years and a community order with a two-year supervision order.