A MAN said to have burst into his former partner’s home in Mold before assaulting her and pulling her hair has been given a suspended sentence.

Dean Paul Burton, 36, of Tan y Hafod, Gwernaffield near Mold, admitted that he assaulted Katie Anne-Marie Williams, at her Broncoed Park home. He demanded to see her mobile phone and believed she was seeing someone else and a concerned neighbour and a friend both dialled 999.

Witnesses, including workmen working on a house nearby, went to investigate when they heard screaming and a woman’s voice shouting: “He is going to kill me.”

He received an 18 week prison sentence suspended for 18 months and was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work. Burton was sent on a “building better relationships” course run by the probation service and he was sent on a six month alcohol treatment programme.

District Judge Gwyn Jones, sitting at North East Wales Magistrates’ Court at Mold, ordered him to pay £500 compensation to his former partner and mother of his children. He said that no amount of money could compensate the victim for the trauma he had caused her.

The judge warned that domestic abuse was corrosive ruined relationships and unless challenged, would continue. He said that he would respect the victims of the victim and would not impose a restraining order.

But he warned that any further incidents of domestic violence would leave extremely limited options for the court.

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting, told how a neighbour heard screaming coming from her home and when he went to investigate he saw her at the window and the defendant put his arm around her neck and pulled her back.

Defending solicitor Gary Harvey said he would not mitigate when the judge indicated the sentence he had in mind.

The judge said that it was clear that alcohol was at the root of his offending.

The judge said that he took into account his guilty plea and the fact that he was willing to work with the probation service.