A man punched his girlfriend in the face after picking her up from a wedding - leaving her bleeding and screaming in the street.
Michael Kearns, 43, of Woodshaw Mead in Royal Wootton Bassett was sentenced at Swindon Magistrates’ Court having pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm.
On August 24, 2023, Kearns collected his then-girlfriend from a wedding where she had been drinking and an argument started in the car.
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Kearns punched her in the left side of the face causing “significant swelling and bruising to her eye”.
At the time they were near Pewsey railway station, where the victim "fell" out of the moving car when it had slowed.
Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, said: “Nearby residents heard the sound of the car and female screaming. They found [the victim] bleeding from her face with excessive crying.
“She said she just wanted to go home but that in an argument her partner had punched her in the face.”
Kearns was arrested at his home. In a police interview, he did not comment but said “he loved her and hoped she was okay”.
As well as the facial injuries, the victim suffered bruising to her leg and arm from jumping from the car.
Kearns pleaded guilty at the first opportunity by writing, which was read out in court.
It stated: “I plead to the actual bodily harm on the following basis. She had been at a wedding all day and had been drinking.
“ I was sober and had worked all day and came to collect her from the wedding. In the car she was pulling the handbrake and I tried to stop her.
“I drove to the railway station so I could drop her there and she could get home. She had been assaulting me and I accept that in the melee I smacked her in the face.
He said he did so on a “reckless” basis and did not cause the injuries to her body, but she “fell out of the car drunk”.
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Gordon Hotson, representing Kearns, repeated that the punch was “reckless not deliberate”.
He revealed that Kearns lost his house after he and the victim separated and he lost his job - leaving him unemployed, without stable housing, and “drinking far more than he should”.
Kearns was given a 24-month community order with 12 sessions of mental health treatment, six-month alcohol treatment and 40 rehabilitation activity days.
He must pay a reduced fine of £60 due to an early guilty plea, a surcharge of £114 and costs of £85 - a total of £259.
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