A MAN who perforated his partner's eardrum in a drink-fuelled attack told her beforehand "you're fat and ugly and I don't do fat and ugly people".

Alan Dodds, 51, argued with his girlfriend when he came home from the pub after spending their rent and grocery money on alcohol during a three-hour binge.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Dodds had downed up to eight cans of cider before going out and hurled abuse at his fed-up girlfriend when he got back home.

He yelled "You're fat and ugly, and I don't do fat and ugly people", said prosecutor Rupert Doswell, and the woman replied with "a few choice words" of her own.

The woman went to a bedroom to pack her bags after being insulted by Dodds, but he followed her, grabbed her "with significant force" and punched her.

The court heard that the victim felt "intense" pain on the left side of her head and felt dizzy before she managed to flee and raise the alarm.

At hospital, she was treated for mild concussion and a perforated eardrum, and doctors noticed bruising on her arms, said Mr Doswell.

When Dodds was arrested the following day in June last year, he told police his partner of eight years had hit him first and shifted the blame onto her.

Robert Newcombe, mitigating, said he was "extremely aware" of the seriousness of what he had done, and said his lung disease would make a jail term hard.

Mr Newcombe said Dodds's breathing capacity was just 30 per cent normal capacity, and has been told by doctors that he has the lungs of an 80-year-old.

Dodds, of High Street, Marske, east Cleveland, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.

The judge, Recorder Jeremy Barnett, also ordered him to undergo 12 months of supervision, and attend ten sessions of an alcohol awareness course.

He told Dodds: "You could do with some assistance . . . I think you need to know that if you do this again or something like this you will go to prison.

"You have been unwell for some time, but you drink far too much for your own good, and how you manage to afford it, well that is a matter for you.

"You had consumed a huge amount of alcohol that day, which does worry me. Your partner had decided to pack her bags and go and you didn't like that."