A 26-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for eight months for knocking his former partner unconscious in a New Year's Day attack.

Marc Skelly smashed the oven door and threw a drink in the woman's face before pushing her to the ground and kicking and hitting her, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Skelly, of Folkton Holme, Fagley, Bradford, banged her head on the floor until she blacked out in a sustained assault that was witnessed by young children.

He pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage at the woman's Bradford flat on January 1 this year.

Prosecutor Alisha Kaye said Skelly was on prison licence for robbery at the time and had since been recalled to jail to serve the balance of his sentence.

Miss Kaye said his former partner lived at a separate address but Skelly was there on New Year's Day and they got into an argument.

Skelly broke the glass door on the oven before leaving the address.

He returned and began to vacuum up the broken glass but then threw a warm drink of tea or coffee in the woman's face.

When her mother left the flat to call the police, Skelly pushed the woman to the ground and attacked her.

She was treated in Bradford Royal Infirmary for a head injury that needed gluing, a split lip and bruising to her nose, eyes and left hand.

Skelly was arrested on January 6 and made no comment to police questions.

Miss Kaye said he had previous convictions for burglary, common assault and theft. In 2012, he was imprisoned for three and a half years for robbery.

His victim said in a statement read out in court that she had difficulty sleeping and was afraid of meeting Skelly in the street.

Skelly's solicitor advocate, Ray Singh, said he had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

He sensibly left the flat after the argument began, but when he returned, the trouble escalated. After his victim threw his clothes into the garden and refused to lend him her phone, he behaved "quite appallingly and abysmally."

Judge Colin Burn made an indefinite restraining order banning Skelly from contacting the woman directly or going within 200 metres of the street where she lives.

The judge said it was a sustained attack witnessed by young children but he was satisfied that Skelly was sorry.

"There is some element of remorse and you realise how wrongly you acted on that day," he said.