A FORMER magistrate accused of throwing a picture frame into his girlfriend's face during a row said yesterday that it was "a pure accident".

Paul Geldart, 44, who also served as a borough councillor in Darlington, told police investigating the alleged assault: "The only crime I have committed was to fall in love, and fall in love with a liar."

Mr Geldart denies a charge of assaulting Melanie Lumsden, causing actual bodily, in an incident at the home of her friend, Sharon Hardy, in Marshall Street, Darlington, in August last year.

Miss Lumsden told Durham Crown Court that Mr Geldart burst into the house "red with rage" to confront her after seeing her with an ex-boyfriend in North Road.

In the row in the bedroom of Miss Hardy's house, Mr Geldart was alleged to have thrown from a short distance a framed photograph at Miss Lumsden, as she sat on a bed, striking her in the face.

Miss Lumsden, 27, now of Shildon, County Durham, said she was treated at hospital for cuts to the side of the face, and still suffers problems with a saliva gland.

In a subsequent police interview, read to the court, Mr Geldart told officers they met months earlier when Miss Lumsden approached him after hearing of voluntary work he carried out with a domestic violence unit in Darlington.

A relationship developed and, because of his former duties as a magistrate and councillor, he said he informed "all relevant agencies".

After things cooled for a while Mr Geldart said she contacted him on August 26, last year, asking to talk.

He picked her up and took her to his house, in Hercules Street, Darlington, where they "hugged and kissed passionately".

They agreed to meet that evening, but later he saw her in the car of her former flame.

When asked by officers if he felt "humiliated" he replied: "I couldn't believe I had been conned."

Asked if he deliberately tried to harm her, he said: "You're joking, I wouldn't harm a fly. I didn't do it with malice, it was a pure accident.

"The only crime I committed was to fall in love and fall in love with a liar."

The hearing continues today.