A ROSSENDALE man, said to have dragged his girlfriend out of a pizza shop by her head, must attend a community domestic violence programme.

Burnley magistrates heard how Paul Anthony McDonald, 23, had also pulled the victim along the ground after she lost her balance.

The couple's relationship was described as "stormy and rocky" and in the past the defendant had asked courts to jail him.

McDonald, of Whinberry View, Rawtenstall, admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, in March.

He was given a community order with two years supervision and the domestic violence programme and was warned by the justices that the next stop was prison. He must also pay £65 costs.

David Hartley, prosecuting, said that in the early hours the defendant, who had been out drinking, approached his girlfriend of six years in Rawtenstall.

She had been out with friends and was in a takeaway. The defendant dragged her out and, when she fell, he dragged her along the ground as her friends tried to save her.