A WARRINGTON man who slapped his partner in the face twice causing her to bleed while she held their baby in her arms has walked free from court.

Jeffrey Barber’s long-term partner received a startling blow to the face after asking him simply to help move some items so that scaffolding work could be carried out on their home.

The 40-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of assault by beating and appeared before Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday facing sentencing.

Providing the facts of the case, Simon Leong, prosecuting, stated that the incident happened on September 12 last year at an address on Poplars Avenue in Orford.

“The defendant and the victim had been together 15 years and have two children together,” Mr Leong said.

He went on to detail how Barber and the victim were at the address when she asked him to move some items as work men had arrived to put scaffolding up and the area needed clearing for this to be done.

The defendant responded to this by saying, ‘go and get your other boyfriend to do it’.

Barber was then asked to leave the property by the victim, but he refused and began asking her to ‘start a fight’.

“She said no and then he punched her to the right of her face,” Mr Leong added.

The defendant was then heard to have picked up his 18-month-old son and passed him to his partner, the child’s mother, before continuing to argue with her.

While the victim was holding her son, Barber swung for her, slapping her across the face twice and causing her nose and lip to bleed.

The woman ran from the defendant, managing to escape from the property and screaming for the scaffold workers who were outside to call the police.

Police attended the scene shortly after and had to locate the defendant before placing him under arrest.

During an interview he provided no comment responses to all the questions asked.

The prosecutor read out an emotional personal victim statement to the court. In it the victim refers to Barber as ‘Simon’.

Mr Leong read: “As a result of Simon punching me in the face I received a bruise to my right cheek. I had to take my children to school and all the parents were looking at me.

“The physical injuries took two to three weeks to heal so I had to hide away inside. I never planned for anything like this to happen.

“Simon has destroyed our family. I did not sleep for weeks because of this.

“I have moved properties. I could not stay in the old house due to previous incidents.”

The defendant, of Dixon Street, town centre, has no previous convictions.

Defending Barber, Hunter Grey said: “Clearly this was an unpleasant incident aggravated by the fact it was committed in a domestic setting.

“He does not speak to justify his behaviour; it was very much out of character for him.

“The victim said she expected to spend the rest of her life with Mr Barber.”

Before sentencing, Honour Judge Andrew Menary addressed the defendant in the dock.

“The victim of these offences being your long-term partner, you and she were together for 15 years.

“It was described as an on off relationship. You were up late the night before doing some housework and were in bed early that morning when scaffolders arrived to carry out work to the house.

“She did no more than ask you to help her move things to facilitate that work.

“You struck her whilst she was holding her own child. This was a very nasty thing to do.”

Judge Menary handed the defendant a two-year community order, with the conditions being that he take part in the Building Better Relationships programme, as well as attending 10 rehabilitation requirement days and carrying out 200 hours of unpaid work – outside of his full-time job.