A MAN who turned up drunk at his former girlfriend’s home smashed a window and then was abusive, before assaulting her mother, a court heard.

Isaac Farmer then went to a nearby shop and, when questioned for not wearing a mask, he was abusive and threatening to an assistant.

Durham Crown Court was told Farmer left Baker News, in Princes Street, Bishop Auckland, but returned wearing a knuckleduster, demanding that the cctv footage from his earlier visit be wiped clear.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, said the incidents all took place shortly after 6.30am on Saturday December 21 when Farmer appeared to be in a highly intoxicated state as he went to his ex-girlfriend’s home in Bishop Auckland.

Shouting was heard and then the crashing of a downstairs window, so the mother of his former girlfriend confronted him, telling him to leave.

But he was abusive, telling her: “Who are you talking to, you slut?”

Mr Dryden said in trying to usher Farmer out, she was assaulted and knocked to the ground by him.

He left and then entered the nearby shop, not wearing a mask.

When challenged, Farmer told the assistant: “Who do you think you are talking to?”

He bought some vodka and left but, realising the incident may have been caught on cctv, he returned with the knuckleduster.

Mr Dryden said Farmer insisted that the assistant deleted the footage from cctv and brandished the knuckleduster.

When he was told it could not be done Farmer said: “Do you want me to come around there?”.

Leaving, he threatened to kill the assistant if he rang the police.

Farmer, 21, of Wilson View, Coundon, admitted charges of assault by beating, criminal damage, and possessing an offensive weapon in public, which pout him in breach of a suspended sentence.

Chris Baker, for Farmer, said he spent 16 days in custody and then 83 days on a tagged curfew since his first court appearance.

Mr Baker said the defendant was, “a young man with a number of issues”, including mental health and learning difficulties which contributed to the offending, but which would make any spell in custody more problematic.

But Judge Ray Singh said in his view, Farmer behaved, “like a thug”, with a “criminal career” stretching back three years since his first offence of possessing an offensive weapon in public.

Farmer also has more recent offences of being carried in a vehicle taken without consent and assaulting an emergency worker.

Imposing an immediate prison sentence totalling ten months, Judge Singh said courts had previously given Farmer “a chance” to mend his ways, but he has failed to take the opportunity offered by community orders and two suspended sentences in the recent past.