A mum was left terrified after a drunken thug assaulted her and threatened her children.
Thomas Bibby, 43, launched the brutal attack after the victim followed him from her home during a row which followed a night of heavy drinking.
He punched her in the head before kicking her as she lay on the ground and warned ‘your kids are dead’ if she told the police what happened, LancsLive reports.
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Prosecuting, Andrew Hey told Preston Magistrates Court that the incident happened at around 8am near the Horse and Hound pub on Ormskirk Road, in Skelmersdale, near Wigan.
He said: “She was walking towards the bus stop and he punched her to the head on the left side. He then threw her behind a white van and kicked her and spat in her face.
“He said to her ‘if you’re on the phone to the police your kids are dead, you grass’.”
When Bibby was arrested, he was found to be carrying two bags of cannabis in his sock.
He originally admitted possession of a Class C drug and denied assault but changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to begin. The case was then adjourned for the completion of a pre-sentencing report.
According to Sephton Lee, defending, Bibby, of Whittle Drive, Ormskirk, said he and the victim had been drinking heavily the night before.
Mr Lee said: “He’s fallen asleep and she carried on drinking. He woke at 8am to hear loud music on the radio. He woke up, they started arguing, he said he was leaving, walked towards the bus stop and this incident happened.”
Mr Lee said Bibby had been “bombarded” with calls and messages from the woman, did not object to a proposed restraining order and planned to change his number after the hearing to break off the contact.
In a victim impact statement, the woman said she had been left with anxiety, stress and sleeplessness as a result of the attack.
She said she had pain in her right shoulder and left eye, suffered a blackened lip, bruising to her right side and needed multiple hospital appointments.
The woman added that the ordeal had left her “scared of men” and not wanting another relationship.
The court heard that the attack happened when Bibby was already subject of a community order for attacking the same woman.
Mr Lee also said that Bibby, who has three children, had secured a new place to live and had an “upcoming job opportunity”, both of which would be lost by him going to prison.
But the magistrates disagreed that suspending any sentence would be appropriate and jailed him for 18 weeks. They also issued a restraining order banning him from any contact with the victim.
