Morecambe roofer smashed his ex-partner against a shed door and spat in her face

A violent argument erupted as Luke Parkinson tried to leave home with his belongings, a judge in Preston was told.

In the row he smashed his ex-partner against a shed door and spat in her face three times.

When he appeared before Judge Heather Lloyd at the city’s Crown Court Parkinson admitted assault and criminal damage and was jailed for a total of 11 weeks.

But because the roofer had already spent more than that time in custody on remand he was able to walk free after the hearing.

He was also made the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting the woman or entering the street where she lives for the next five years.

The court was told Parkinson, of Westminster Road, Morecambe, had been seeing the woman for around three years. But the relationship was described by the prosecution as “awful” due to his problems with drink and drugs.

One morning he went to the house they had shared to pick up his belongings and the couple got into a row outside the back door as he left with his suitcase.

CCTV footage of the confrontation was played in court, showing Parkinson shouting at the woman and then grabbing hold of her and pushing her violently into the shed door and spitting at her, calling her a “slag” and a “bitch”. She shouted back: “Get away from me.”

When arrested by police he refused to answer any questions. His ex-partner also retracted a statement she had made to officers in which she had claimed he had previously assaulted her, breaking her arm and leaving her with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

She told them she didn’t want to go through a trial because she didn’t feel strong enough mentally to go to court.”

The court heard Parkinson was in breach of a suspended eight week sentence at the time of the assault.

Barrister Richard Flock, representing Parkinson, said the relationship had been a “toxic and difficult” one on both sides. The incident had been “very unpleasant” and had shown a “snapshot of their relationship”. It had been committed on impulse and was “simply a reckless push”.

“He recognises that the relationship is over and wants to move on. He was trying to leave, that’s what he was doing that day.

“He wanted to break off that relationship - he knows it was not good for him or the victim.”

Judge Lloyd told Parkinson: “What a charming individual you are with your behaviour and attitude to someone with whom you had had a relationship.”

She said calling her a bitch and a slag and spitting in her face had been “disgusting”.

She sent him to prison for eight weeks for the assault and three weeks for the damage to the shed door. But she said the sentences would be “academic” because he had already served longer than that on remand.

She also made him the subject of a supervision order for one year after his release.