Man choked his girlfriend after party drinks

Mark Whiteside had left a pizza burning in the oven which filled the kitchen with smoke and when his girlfriend tried to speak to him about it he pushed her backwards onto some stairs, pulled her forward and then slammed her down.

He then twice put his hands round her throat and squeezed so hard she thought she was going to pass out.

Whiteside, a 22-year-old agency worker, of The Close, Kirkham, pleaded guilty to assault.

He was sentenced to a 12- month community order with up to 20 days’ rehabilitation to be supervised by the Probation Service, put on a four-month curfew from 8pm to 6am and ordered to pay £100 compensation with £85 costs plus £85 victims’ surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.

Prosecutor, Jim Mowbray, said the woman returned to her home on Rawlinson Street, Kirkham, after a night out to find the doors locked on April 23 at 4.45am .

A bedroom window was open and she got some ladders, climbed up and got inside.

On finding the pizza burning she tried to rouse her boyfriend who was asleep in the sofa.

After assaulting her, Whiteside swept pots from the side onto the kitchen floor and she managed to escape from the address and contact the police.

Suzanne Mugford, defending, said her client had been out celebrating a friend’s birthday and drunk a significant amount of alcohol, far more than he would normally drink.

He had little recollection of the events. He went back to the home he was sharing at the time with his girlfriend. He remembered putting a pizza in and then waking up in the police cell.

There was a hope he may be able to get back with his girlfriend.