A MIDDLE-AGED man abused his former partner and smashed in her bedroom door, Burnley Magistrates heard.

The court was told how jobless Edward McGarrell, 51, called his on-off girlfriend of eight years a slapper.

When he was interviewed by police, the defendant said he could not remember much about what had happened as he had been very drunk.

McGarrell, of Union Street, Colne, who has 12 previous convictions, admitted damage and was given a 12 months conditional discharge.

Bernard Horne, defending, said McGarrell and the victim had lived together for seven years but recently separated.

For the last two or three years, the defendant had had a drink problem and had been receiving counselling. He would say his former partner also had a drink related problem and when they got together it could sometimes end in rows.

They had been having vodka and gin and the drunker they got the more they fell out. At some stage before the door was damaged she hit McGarrell in the face and he was bleeding heavily from his nose when police arrived. The solicitor went on: "In many ways it was six of one and half a dozen of the other."