A MAN involved in a domestic violence incident came within a whisker of being locked up after a judge took a dislike to his attitude in court.

David Gatley, 26, sat slumped in the dock and appeared to take little interest in the proceedings at Teesside Crown Court.

At one point, Judge Sean Morris asked him if he was okay, and then was about to change his mind about a suspended sentence he had planned.

The judge sent him to the cells while he reconsidered his punishment, and Gatley’s lawyer Garry Wood was given time to speak to him again.

Earlier, the judge had indicated he was going to impose a ten-month suspended sentence with 250 hours of unpaid work for the community.

He said: “I’m going to make you graft for the community,” but paused after Gatley’s reaction, and asked: “Have you got a problem with that?”

He told Mr Wood: “This man shows absolutely no remorse. Having seen his behaviour, I’m wondering if I have got it wrong.”

Following the break, the solicitor said: “I have had the opportunity of going down to see the defendant in the cells, and quite frankly, even at that point, he had no idea how close he is right now to going to prison - one foot in the van, as it were.

"If the choice was his, he would seek to knuckle down and do the hours.”

The court heard police were called to Norton Road, Stockton, on January 22 and found Gatley bare-chested with a piece of wood, and his partner cowering in the corner of a room.

He had damaged the house, punching holes in doors and upturning drawers, said prosecutor Jonathan Walker.

Mr Wood said: “There is no history of domestic violence. He didn’t seem to grasp how inappropriate his behaviour was, and said ‘well, I took my anger out on the property’.”

The judge said: “Despite his irritating behaviour in the dock, he has not hitherto been a woman-beater, and I am prepared to suspend it.”

Gatley, of Samphire Street, Middlesbrough, admitted affray and had his ten-month sentence suspended for 18 months.