A MAN who assaulted his pregnant partner had been struggling to cope after she had suffered an earlier miscarriage, magistrates have heard.

Daniel Thomas, of Rhandirmwyn, Llwyndafydd in Llandysul, admitted assaulting Sarah Kelland twice in separate incidents on 20 December, first grabbing her clothing by the neck area before throwing a bag of recycling bags that hit her in the face.

Rhian Jones, prosecuting, said Thomas, who had pleaded guilty to two charges of assault, had been arguing with Ms Kelland on the day and at one point he grabbed her by the neck of her clothing and pushed her out of their home before locking the door.

After Ms Kelland kept knocking on the door, Thomas, 33, then opened the door and grabbed her by the clothing again pulling her back into the house and causing her to knock her elbow as she was being dragged inside.

Later that evening, Ms Kelland was packing an overnight bag to go and stay elsewhere as the couple were arguing, but Thomas thought she was leaving permanently.

He started packing her belongings up, but Ms Jones said he was throwing items around and had barged past Ms Kelland before he threw the roll of recycling bags which hit her in the face. Ms Kelland tried to call 999, but Ms Jones said Thomas then grabbed her phone and cancelled the call before Ms Kelland got her phone back and locked herself in her car. When the 999 call handler called back, Ms Kelland initially said that there wasn’t a problem and that Thomas had been “messing around” before she broke down in tears and admitted the assaults.

Following his arrest Thomas said that Ms Kelland had been shouting at him and he had been trying to calm her down.

He denied grabbing her clothing or taking her phone and said that the recycling bags had hit her as she had tried to hit him with the roll, but he had grabbed them and thrown them away only for the bags to hit the ceiling and hit Ms Kelland.

In a statement Ms Kelland said the relationship had been under strain after she suffered a miscarriage and said the couple seemed to have been “blaming each other” and had started arguing. Defence solicitor Alison Mathias said that while Thomas didn’t accept some of the prosecution evidence as it was put, he admitted that he had twice assaulted Ms Kelland. He said he had never intended to hurt her, but had been “reckless” in how he had handled the situation. Ms Mathias said the couple were both struggling to deal with a traumatic situation and that Thomas now realises he needed help and has sought counselling.

Thomas was given a 12-month community order with 15 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement and 80 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay costs of £170.