A CREWE man who grabbed his girlfriend by the hair and forced her head into a wall has been sentenced to three months in prison.

Robert James, of Nantwich Road, was sentenced at Crewe Magistrates Court last Friday for the assault on Julie Wherret.

James was also given a consecutive three-month sentence for driving whilst disqualified.

Through a statement read by Cara Pickering of the Crown Prosecution Service, Miss Wherret told the court how the unemployed 30-year-old launched the unprovoked attack on April 12.

"He came in the lounge and told me to go out, but I had only got a few doors down the street when he shouted me back to turn the television off," she said.

"Then for no reason he grabbed me by my hair and bashed my head against the wall. I tried to calm him down and tell him to stop but he called me a slag.

"He started to kick my shins and he also slapped my head. I kept asking him to stop and eventually he did."

But the attack continued outside when James followed Miss Wherret to the phone box.

"He grabbed hold of my coat and pushed me back over a wall and into a garden," she said.

"He continued to call me names and I could see that he was angry and mad. He picked up a brick and threatened me with it."

The ordeal was ended when a passing police patrol car arrived at the scene and officers made the arrest.

Miss Wherret sustained a bump and graze to the forehead, swollen and bleeding lips and swelling around the knees. She said she was very upset and shaken by what had happened.

Chairman of the bench Patricia Stalker told James he would have to serve half of his six-month total sentence in prison.

"Because of the seriousness of the assault, including the kicking which the court takes very seriously, we have no option than to send you to prison," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.