Boozed-up Blidworth man hurled shoe at ex before punching out her windscreen

When Benjamin Austin turned up her home in Rainworth drunk, on the night of June 17, she decided their relationship was over and packed a bag, Mansfield Magistrates’ Court heard.

Daniel Pietryka, prosecuting, said Austin hurled a shoe at her face which made her nose bleed before running outside and punching the windscreen of her Mercedes, causing it to crack.

Austin, aged 37, pushed the woman out of the house and shouted for her to leave.

In a separate incident on January 9, the court heard Austin was present at a rowdy party where ‘a number of people had numerous arguments’ and ‘things were being thrown and smashed on the floor’.

Austin picked up a bottle and threatened to smash it over another man’s head.

Austin, of Green Close, Blidworth, admitted common assault and was convicted of assault and criminal damage following a trial.

Chris Perry, mitigating, said Austin, a ‘hard-working man with a good job’, was cleared of strangling his ex-partner at a trial, but accepted responsibility for what he did and will ‘respond positively to probation intervention’.

Mr Perry said the probation service gave ‘a good report about a decent fellow who behaves dreadfully when he drinks’.

Austin was given an 18-month community order and ordered to participate in a 31-day ‘building better relationships’ course and 10 rehabilitation sessions and pay £100 compensation to his ex-partner and £50 to the man he threatened, as well as £235 costs and a £114 surcharge.