A BUILDER kicked a hole in a bathroom door after his girlfriend locked herself in during an early-hours row.

Christopher John Wilson admitted two counts of criminal damage when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Wilson and his then girlfriend had gone out for a drink on August 3, prosecutor Mark Hambling said.

But the pair had parted company during the evening and, when his girlfriend returned home at around 3am the next morning, she found blood on the front door, while Wilson was standing in the kitchen, where an argument started.

"At some point he took a phone from her bag and threw it across the room," Mr Hambling said.

The victim locked herself in the bathroom, but Wilson started banging on the door and shouting, and kicked a hole in the panel.

In interview, the 50-year-old admitted both breaking the phone and kicking the bathroom door and said he had done it out of frustration.

ALSO READ:

Chris Read, for Wilson, said it had been the last incident in the breaking-down of a relationship.

"They had been together for about four years, but in August things came to a head," Mr Read said.

"They had been through lockdown, the loss of work and money, and the victim's adult daughter and son had come to live with them, and this was the lid blowing off the pressure cooker. It was a trivial argument and they had been drinking quite heavily.

The court heard Wilson had compensated the victim for the damage, but that there was no formal record of this.

Wilson, of Queensway, Hereford, was fined £150 and ordered to pay compensation of £320. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £34 victim surcharge.