A MAN who got embroiled in a domestic dispute bit his partner's ex-husband as he brandished a hammer, a court heard.

Joshua Lawrence was spared prison when a judge told the 48-year-old: "I'm taking a chance on you because you're a changed man according to the pre-sentence report."

Lawrence has 82 crimes on a record which includes four assaults and two involving offensive weapons, Teesside Crown Court was told on Friday.

But the last bout of violence - for which he was jailed for two years - was more than a decade ago, Judge Simon Hickey heard.

The judge told him: "You are a very different individual to that which your record paints, but you have a propensity, obviously, to act like this when it suits.

"If you had used the hammer, you would have been sent away by me for some years, I can assure you."

Defence lawyer Alex Bousfield said Lawrence had been "foolish and frankly stupid" for going armed to the house in Stockton last October to collect his partner's daughter.

Mr Bousfield said he acted "in a very misguided manner" and was remorseful for scaring the girl and getting involved in a scuffle with her father.

He said he could not remember biting the man's ear, and was puzzled a about the injury he suffered, but he had been "badly out-numbered" by other people who got involved.

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told the court that he made off from the scene shouting: "I'm going to f****** kill all of you. I'll be back."

Lawrence, of Darwin Close, Stockton, admitted charges of possessing an offensive weapon, common assault and causing fear of provocation by violence.

He was given a 14-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid community work and a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Judge Hickey also ordered him to pay his victim £200 compensation.

Mr Bousfield said Lawrence had been troubled with drink and drugs in the past, but said he had turned around his life after meeting his partner eight years ago.

"He knows if anything like this would happen again, he would have to run away," he added. "It would not be a matter of pride or anything, he would just have to remove himself from that situation."