Partner clutched a knife and smashed plates during row over '˜cheating'

Curtis Guy (27), a chef, of Windyhall Park, Coleraine, appeared at Ballymena Magistrates Court on Thursday, February 16 for sentencing on charges of possessing a knife as an offensive weapon and causing criminal damage to plates.

The incident happened on October 18 last year and defence barrister Neil Moore told the court: “There is an insinuation that there may well have been one party cheating on the other”.

A prosecutor said police received a report of a disturbance in which Guy, who had a record, was “brandishing” a knife and causing damage.

The lawyer said the woman said she locked herself in an upstairs bedroom.

The woman, the prosecutor added, told police she and her partner had an argument and when she asked him to leave the property he started smashing plates and shouted to her not to come downstairs as he had a knife.

Damage was also caused to internal doors and the repair bill was £400.

Mr Moore said Guy was “thoroughly ashamed and embarrassed” and the defendant has moved back to live with his parents.

Deputy District Judge Joe Rice said it was a “serious case” which “must have been very frightening” for the woman who was put “in fear of her life”.

Ordering Guy to do 140 hours Community Service and to pay £400 compensation, the judge warned him not to be back in court