A ROSSENDALE man who climbed through a window at his former girlfriend’s home then stabbed her with a fork has been spared jail.

Catherine McKay was awoken by noises downstairs in the early hours of January 29 and suspected her ex-partner Mark Andrew Evans might be responsible, Burnley Crown Court was told.

She confronted Evans in the kitchen, asking him what he thought he was doing, and the pair struggled, with her eventually grabbing him in a headlock.

He managed to open a kitchen drawer and grab a fork, which he used to stab her in the legs three or four times, the court heard.

Evans, of Acre Mill Road, Stacksteads, admitted affray and was given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours community service and pay £100 costs.

David Macro, prosecuting, said Miss McKay, who lived with her parents in Rochdale Road, Bacup, at the time of the incident, had been left fearful for her own safety.

She had been staying with two friends and a male friend, Ben Fletcher, when Evans sneaked into the house.

Before the former partners tussled in the kitchen, Evans had tried to climb up the stairs, with Miss McKay clinging on to him, so he could confront Mr Fletcher.

Interviewed by police later, Evans, who had been drinking, said he was walking home when he was told someone had been sleeping with his ex-partner.

He claimed, when he grabbed the fork during the kitchen struggle, he had been trying to stab himself.

Emma Johnson, defending said her client now wished to apologise.