AN Alcester man who let himself into his former partner’s home early one morning and attacked her new lover as he lay naked in bed has escaped a prison sentence.

Michael Ferguson pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to assaulting Philip Hillier causing him actual bodily harm and also admitted causing criminal damage to his mobile phone.

He denied a more serious charge of aggravated burglary of his former partner’s home in Bidford-on-Avon with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on Mr Hillier.

Accepting those pleas, prosecutor Michelle Heeley explained that Mr Hillier has left the country, and Ferguson’s ex-partner ‘does not wish to co-operate with the prosecution.”

Ferguson, aged 25, of Birmingham Road, Alcester, was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay £200 compensation to Mr Hillier.

Miss Heeley said that on March 29 Mr Hillier was at the home of Ferguson’s ex-partner, with whom he had recently started a relationship, in The Poplars, Bidford-on-Avon.

They were woken early in the morning by Ferguson, who had let himself in with a key he had retained after they had split up.

Mr Hillier was naked in bed, and woke to find Ferguson straddling him before dragging him out of the bed, demanding: “What are you doing sleeping with my missus?”

Ferguson then punched him a number of times before Mr Hillier managed to grab his clothes and run from the address.

He had fled without his mobile phone which Ferguson, who had a conviction for violence going back to when he was 16, then smashed by throwing it onto the floor and stamping on it.

Sean Logan, defending, said Ferguson, who has just started a job, was not normally a bad-tempered young man.

And urging the judge not to jail Ferguson, he argued: “This is a case where he was provoked beyond endurance, but there is no indication of the use of a weapon.”

Sentencing Ferguson, Recorder Adrian Redgrave QC told him: “You know perfectly well you should not have done what you did; but I understand the circumstances.”

Recorder Redgrave said he did not consider it necessary to pass any form of custodial sentence, adding: “It is out of character, and you pleaded guilty early in these proceedings.”