A MAN has been jailed for six months for defying a court and beating up his ex-girlfriend.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said police found Matthew Moorehouse in her bed at 1.50am despite him being subject to bail conditions banning him from going to her home and a restraining order banning him from physical contact with her.

He was pending sentence for assaulting her and breaching the restraining order.

Police sent him in custody to York Magistrates Court where he was jailed for 26 weeks.

Magistrates also ordered him to pay £100 compensation to the woman on his release, and extended the restraining order for 12 months to August next year.

Moorehouse, 39, formerly of Selby, who was bailed to his father's address in Scunthorpe, denied both charges, but was convicted at a trial.

Mr Butterworth said Moorehouse grabbed his ex-partner round the neck and hit her across the face on February 26. She called 999, but declined to co-operate with prosecuting him, as she had declined in July and August last year when he was prosecuted and convicted of assaulting her.

The CPS pressed charges against Moorehouse over the February incident including police evidence of her injuries, which were minor.

Early on July 14, the former girlfriend again called police to her Selby home. They found Moorehouse in her bed. Again, she declined to give a statement, but he was arrested for breach of bail.

For Moorehouse, Kevin Blount claimed the woman had repeatedly invited Moorehouse to her house. He was on crutches and had his leg in plaster.

The 39-year-old man had a problem with alcohol and this led to him committing offences.

The solicitor pleaded with the magistrates to let Moorehouse keep his liberty so he could continue the course of how to conduct himself in relationships he had started after his conviction last summer.

Magistrates heard Moorehouse had previous convictions for violence in relation to a previous partner.