A YORK former rugby international has narrowly escaped jail for breaking down his ex-girlfriend's door at night and smashing her new boyfriend's cheekbone.

Instead, amateur rugby league player Andrew Paul Tindall, 37, of Heworth and Great Britain, faces a £7,294 bill in compensation and court costs for his actions on January 27 when he refused to accept Sarah Rees' decision not to see him after 11 years together, York Crown Court heard.

Sarah Margree, prosecuting, said that Ms Rees tried to convince Tindall that she was alone at home when he rang her at 9.30pm. In reality she was drinking wine in her bedroom with her new lover, Craig Pierrotti.

Tindall replied: "You've got him there, haven't you" and shortly afterwards he burst into her house in Amberly Street, Acomb, said the barrister.

"You barged the door open late at night, went upstairs and delivered a flurry of blows to your rival," the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Tindall.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, you smashed his face in."

For Tindall, Eric Elliott said his client had believed Ms Rees was alone in the house and had gone to ask her to change her decision about not seeing him. Then, confused and upset by Ms Rees actions over the previous few days, he had seen red when he saw Mr Pierrotti.

He handed in a sheaf of references. The judge said he would have jailed Tindall but for Government measures to reduce prison overcrowding and the mitigation which showed he had acted out of character.

He ordered Tindall to carry out 240 hours' community punishment and pay Mr Pierrotti £5,500 compensation for breaking his cheekbone, Ms Rees £1,073 for the damage to her door and bloodstains on her carpet, and £721 prosecution costs. Miss Margree said the attack prompted the new couple to flee the house and doctors inserted a plate into Mr Pierrotti's face under general anaesthetic. As a result of the attack, both no longer socialise in the city centre.

lTindall, a winger, played for Great Britain against France in 1988 and was part of the Great Britain squad selected for a South Seas tour in 1990.

Updated: 10:12 Saturday, August 09, 2003