A FATHER has been warned he faces jail after breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s house and causing thousands of pounds worth of damage during a drunken rage.

Anthony Simon Dixon trashed his ex-partner’s Newton Aycliffe home while she was away - slashing furniture and all her clothes, pouring and treading paint through every room and smashing ornaments and the TV.

District Judge Martin Walker, sitting at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court, heard the damage totalled thousands of pounds and left the victim and her two children from a previous relationship utterly devastated.

Paula Sanderson, prosecuting, said the pair were involved in an “on off” relationship for about a year which came to an end in February after the Dixon discovered the woman had been seeing someone else.

On Saturday night (March 21), she went to stay at her mother’s home and 31-year-old Dixon, who had been drinking in Hartlepool, turned up later to check up on her.

Ms Sanderson said there were several men at the house who goaded Dixon, causing him to leave in a fit of anger.

Dixon, of Pease Way, Newton Aycliffe, went straight to the woman's home, broke in through the kitchen window and trashed the house.

Ms Sanderson said paint was thrown around the kitchen with the defendant then paddled it throughout the house as part of a rampage “fuelled by alcohol and rejection”.

He slashed the settee and all the cushions, tore down curtains, smashed all the kitchen crockery and destroyed the television.

The prosecutor said Dixon then went upstairs and “slashed every piece of clothing she owned”.

After he finished his rampage, Dixon, who has six children from previous relationships, handed himself in to police, the court heard.

District Judge Walker said the case was too serious for him to deal with and warned Dixon that Teesside Crown Court would consider a significant jail sentence.

The judge said: “This is a man who was extremely hurt, extremely angry and out of control causing total destruction wherever he could.”

Emma Coxon, mitigating, said Dixon accepted he was wrong and had shown great remorse.

Dixon, who admitted burglary with intent to cause damage, was remanded into custody and will appear at Teesside Crown Court for sentencing at a future date.