A young father who pulled out clumps of his partner’s hair as he threw her around the room has been sent on a course to curb his domestic violence.

Paul Teare had been drinking in a pub in Holsworthy and got into an argument with a neighbour before he returned home and attacked Tanya Ingram.

He ‘ragged’ her around the room by her hair, put his hands around her throat so tightly that he left an impression of her necklace and slapped her head against a wall before hurling her to the floor and kicking her.

Police found her injured and distressed after Teare’s mother called police to another fight which Teare was having with his brother in the garden.

Teare, aged 24, formerly of Glebelands, Holsworthy but now of Blundells Road, Tiverton, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years by Recorder Mr Mathew Turner at Exeter Crown Court.

He was ordered to attend a 30-day Building Better Relationships course, put on a 90 day alcohol monitoring tag and ordered to pay £425 costs.

The recorder told him: “The aggravating factors are that this was in a domestic context with a child present and it happened after you had consumed alcohol. You have stopped drinking since this offence and that is very much to your credit.”

Mr Rowan Jenkins, prosecuting, said Teare was staying at his mother’s house in Holsworthy with his partner on Aug 10 this year when he went drinking at the White Hart and got into an argument with a former neighbour.

He went to the man’s house after coming home drunk and there was an argument before he went home and attacked Ms Ingram as she was feeding a two-year-old child.

She told police: “He ragged me around the room by my hair, smacked my head against the wall and grabbed me by the throat and then he kicked my on the floor a few times in my back and ribs.”

Mr Nick Lewin, defending, said Teare was horrified when police showed him images of the injuries the next day and was ‘thoroughly ashamed by his atrocious and appalling behaviour’.

He stopped drinking immediately and is keen to work with probation to avoid any repetition of the incident. His focus is on being a good father to his two young children.