A MAN who viciously assaulted his girlfriend by slamming her head against a kitchen worktop has been told to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work for the attack.

Christopher Michael launched the horrendous assault on his partner on January 7 after they attended a 70th birthday party.

An argument broke out between the pair, who had been together for a year and a half.

Susan Campbell, prosecuting, told Alloa Sheriff Court in March that the couple were picked up in a taxi after the party and taken to Lethen View, Tullibody, where the accused ran straight upstairs as his partner made herself a cup of tea.

Ms Campbell said: “The accused then became violent. He grabbed her by the jaw and slammed her face into the kitchen worktop. She started pleading with him, saying: ‘Leave me, just go’.”

The court then heard that the complainer went into the living room to phone a friend to come round.

Ms Campbell said: “[She] saw him with a knife. He said: ‘Look what you made me do.’ He had a cut to his cheek and was waving the knife around.

“The friend came round and saw the complainer was bleeding from the head and was very scared and upset.”

At this point, Michael still had the knife in his hand and was acting aggressively. He also made threats to kill the complainer’s ex-partner.

The police were then contacted who took the 29-year-old accused to Stirling police station, where he said he acted in self-defence.

Michael’s defence agent, Kelly Howe, told the court on Thursday, April 12, that her client no longer consumes alcohol since the incident.

She also said that the accused is a full-time scaffolder who lives with his parents on Regent Street, Kincardine. Ms Howe added that the accused had not seen the complainer since January and that he realised the severity of his offences.

He pleaded guilty to two charges, one of assaulting his partner by seizing her by the head, striking her head on a worktop and repeatedly punching on the head.

The words seized her by the hair and push her to the floor were removed from the charge.

His second guilty charge was behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

A third charge of recklessly damaging property was dropped.

Sheriff David Mackie told Michael that it was a very serious offence that he had committed.

He was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work and will be supervised for 12 months.