A short-lived relationship came to a sudden end when Mark Robert Brady punched his girlfriend in the eye while she was holding her four-year-old daughter in her arms, a court was told.

Hyndburn magistrates heard that the relationship with Joyce Hales had been on and off for just five weeks when he went to her house in a drunken state.

She asked him to leave and his response was to punch her in the face.

Brady, 36, of Blackburn Road, Accrington, pleaded guilty to assault and was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Graham Parkinson, defending, said the relationship was very definitely over.