A MAN who so terrified his partner that she ran barefoot through fields and woods to escape has been ordered to compensate her.

Michael Keers, 19, collected the 20-year-old woman from her mother's home, where she had spent the night after the couple had a row last July.

He ordered her to get in the car and then struck her with the back of his hand and shouted as they pulled away.

During the journey, he threatened her and she repeatedly tried to get out, but he engaged the central locking system.

Robert Adams, prosecuting, said Keers eventually pulled over near Craghead, in north-west Durham, and ordered her to get out and told her he was going to kill her.

Mr Adams said: "She was extremely frightened and took the opportunity to escape. She had no shoes on, but she ran through fields and through small woodland before coming to the village of Grange Villa."

Mr Adams said she found refuge in the village workingmen's club, where she rang for help and was eventually found, "in an hysterical state", hiding in the women's toilets. She returned to her mother's house and then Keers arrived, forcing the two frightened women to lock themselves in until police arrived and arrested him.

When interviewed, he denied striking her, but agreed he was angry as he was suspicious because he had rung her a dozen times the previous evening without reply.

David Callan, for Keers, said: "This argument and unpleasant event in July was the end of their fraught relationship of nearly two years."

Keers, a scaffolder, of Wright Way, Burnhope, near Stanley, County Durham, admitted affray.

Judge Tim Hewitt, who described it as, "appalling cowardly behaviour", ordered Keers to perform 200-hours' community punishment work, and attend a domestic violence programme as part of a two-year community supervision order.

He was also ordered to pay the victim £2,000 compensation and £797 costs.