A MAN angrily pushed his girlfriend into a bath of scalding water in a drunken row during a birthday celebration in a hotel bedroom.

Paul George Turner could now be jailed following his conviction on charges arising from the incident, which left his victim suffering 13-per cent burns.

The woman, celebrating her 36th birthday with a night at the hotel, plunged sideways into the bath, with her legs dangling out, and initially struggled to free herself from the unbearably hot water.

Durham Crown Court heard that Turner ignored her screams and left the room, falling asleep in a downstairs toilet.

The victim eventually struggled from the bath, with her right arm, shoulder, much of her back, and the top of her chest area scarred and blistered.

Police were called to the Chilton Country Pub and Hotel, near Fencehouses, County Durham, and handcuffed Turner after the night porter heard noise from the toilet, fearing it was a burglar, in the early hours of September 22.

It was only when his girlfriend came down asking what he was up to, that police freed Turner, on the basis he would pay for damage caused trying to make his way out of the toilets, before checking out later that morning.

Back in the room, Turner was said to have further attacked the woman, banging her heard off the bed head board.

The victim later left separately and, on arriving at her parents’ home, distressed and with skin seen hanging from her arm, an ambulance was summoned and she was taken to hospital.

David Lamb, prosecuting, said she spent the next 11 days being treated by specialists in the burns unit at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Forty-nine-year-old Turner, of Malvern Avenue, Chester-le-Street, handed himself in at the town’s police station the following morning.

He was charged with causing grievous bodily harm, plus two counts of assaulting the woman.

Denying the charges, he said he accidentally “bumped” his girlfriend into the bath, during a “play fight” as she sat on the edge, running the water.

He claimed the other two assaults did not take place.

But, on the fourth day of his trial, the jury today (Tuesday January 13) found him ‘guilty’ of grievous bodily harm and the assault in the hotel bedroom.

Turner was cleared of the other assault, said to have taken place at his flat 12 days earlier.

Adjourning sentence, pending preparation of a background probation report on Turner, Judge Christopher Prince told his barrister, Stephen Duffield, a custodial sentence was, “almost inevitable.”

But he granted Mr Duffield’s request to allow Turner bail, prior to sentence, on February 6.