A 46-YEAR-OLD man has been given a 15 month jail sentence suspended for two years after admitting punching and kicking his partner in a row about her pet cat being sick on their bed.

John Hewitt, 46, of Moorside, Cleckheaton, attacked his girlfriend of a year, Vicki Carling, after the pair had been on a night out in September. They had both been drinking and returned to their home at Ash Grove in Bingley.

Prosecutor Nicoleta Alistari told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Hewitt had first kicked the cat and then followed Miss Carling downstairs as she fled, throwing her on to the couch and attacking her which left her with a laceration to the left eyelid and bruises to her arm.

Ash Mahmood for Hewitt said he was under a great deal of stress as his father had been extremely ill, causing him to start drinking again.

"He fully accepts that what he did was appalling behaviour, but it was out of character," he said.

Hewitt pleaded guilty to wounding the day the trial was due to start.

Recorder Simon Hirst said: "You threw Miss Carling on to the settee and you punched and kicked her and continued to do so despite her trying to protect herself and finished it off by setting her handbag on fire."

As well as the suspended prison sentence Hewitt was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work, undergo alcohol treatment, pay £2,500 in compensation as well as £2,000 costs and a victim surcharge.