A SOLDIER will receive military as well as civil punishment for assaulting his ex-partner and a security guard, York Magistrates' Court heard.

An argument broke out between Lewis Robert Halliday, 21, and his former girlfriend in the York flat where both then lived, though their relationship was over, said Katherine Schofield, prosecuting.

Halliday broke his ex-partner’s television and made her fall over as she sat on a step outside the flat.

A security guard, seeing what had happened, came over and asked him to leave, so he spat at her.

Private Halliday, who gave his address as Somme Barracks, Catterick Garrison, and who wore a Yorkshire Regiment tie, pleaded guilty to two assaults and a charge of criminal damage.

He was given a 12-month community order with 150 hours’ unpaid work, and ordered to pay £100 compensation to the security guard, £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory surcharge.

For him, Kevin Blount said he would face a disciplinary hearing before his commanding officer for bringing the Army into disrepute.

The couple had been still living in the same house because Halliday had nowhere else to go.

The ex-partner had not suffered any injuries and the spittle had not landed on the security guard.

It had been a “very limited incident”, said the defence solicitor.