A DOMESTIC violence protection order has been granted against a 21-year-old bricklaying student from Flintshire following a row after his girlfriend allegedly received a Snapchat picture of a naked man.

Magistrates at a weekend special court at Llandudno retired for 25 minutes before announcing the civil order under which Kieran Phelps, of Penycoed Road, Holywell, must for 28 days keep apart from Lois Woodward who also lives in the town.

Phelps had called police after an incident in which he claimed to have been assaulted by Miss Woodward just after midnight on Friday – but it was he who was arrested.

In evidence at the court Phelps said when he pushed his girlfriend it was merely to defend himself after the Snapchat incident.

Philip Kenyon, representing North Wales Police, said an order had been granted last January. He sought the new one to protect the girlfriend from violence or the threat of violence.

Solicitor Richard Williams, for Phelps, said neither of the couple wanted an order, and Miss Woodward had been driven to court by her boyfriend, although she waited outside the courtroom.

They had been playing cards with friends when the mobile phone picture was revealed.

In the witness box Phelps claimed he had told her off about the Snapchat picture “then she started screaming and shouting at me, punched me on the leg and grabbed me by the back of the neck.”

He was scared and phoned police, and six officers arrived in two cars and a van.

Answering Mr Kenyon he said the reason a 28-day order was granted in January was because he had “put his foot up and pushed her away after she assaulted me "and she had fallen to the floor".

Mr Williams urged magistrates: “There are too many uncertainties to say this order should be made.”

However a 28-day order was made during which Phelps must not contact his girlfriend.

Magistrates said it would give Phelps time to reflect and put a distance between the couple.