MAGISTRATES who had banned a soldier from pubs and clubs relented when they heard he would miss his mother's birthday party.

Philip Ladd, who has pleaded not guilty to assaulting his wife, Katherine, and also denied making a threat to kill her, is due to return to magistrates' court in Harrogate early in the new year for a case review.

Mr Ladd, 22, who is serving with the Royal Engineers at Ripon's Claro Barracks, is on bail, with conditions to live at the barracks rather than the family home, in Clotherholme Road, Ripon, and to stay out of licensed premises in the city.

He was back in court yesterday to ask for changes to his bail terms.

His solicitor, Peter Olley, said he was due a week's leave and wanted to spend it with his mother in Cardigan, South Wales.

If the licensed premises ban stayed, Ladd would not to able to go to a birthday party for his mother, which was to be held in his sister's pub on Saturday

Court chairman Bernadette Reid told Mr Ladd he would be allowed to spend his leave in Wales and his bail terms would be varied to allow him to go in to licensed premises there.

But she warned: ''The minute you come back to Ripon, the condition will be back on automatically.''