A MAN who attacked his former girlfriend with his bicycle and trashed her home has been jailed for eight months.

Paul Lennon Starr, 43, was subject at the time to a domestic violence protection order banning him from contacting the former girlfriend, said Vincent Blake-Barnard, prosecuting.

He was also on bail for a string of offences, including repeat shoplifting with a second woman.

Mr Blake-Barnard told York Crown Court Starr accused his former partner of cheating on him.

He went to her home on February 15 when she was not there and then phoned her making “numerous” threats and telling her he would “smash her house to pieces”.

She returned home with police to find he had broken her television.

The next day, while she was at a friend’s house, he again went to her home where he pulled cupboard doors off their hinges, threw rubbish bags around, cut up some of her clothes, and broke or damaged other items in the house.

When he returned after she got home, she ran out of the house. He followed her on his bike and caught up with her in Tuke Avenue.

“He pushed his bike two or three times into her legs and punched her six or seven times to the head,” said Mr Blake-Barnard.

When she put her hands up to protect herself, he started punching her lower down.

He got back on his bike and briefly left before returning as she was getting to her feet. He kneed her in the head and after she pleaded with him to leave her alone, rode off again. She returned home in distress.

Starr, of Clifton, pleaded guilty to assault, two charges of criminal damage and stealing the keys to her house.

He also admitted three thefts, one offence of criminal damage and one of having a knife in public in other incidents.

Starr represented himself. He told the court he had spent six months in custody on remand and therefore had already served the equivalent of an 11 and a half month sentence.

When he was jailed for eight months, he said "thank you very much” to the judge. He was also made subject to a five-year restraining order aimed at protecting the woman from him.

Mr Blake-Barnard said Starr stole a £1,300 bicycle from a camper van at a camping site off Millfield Lane, Poppleton, at 6am on June 20 last year. 

On July 14 last year, he went into Aldi’s store on Kathryn Avenue, Huntington, with the second woman and together they stole four bottles of gin, hiding them in her shoulder bag and leaving without paying.

Two days later they were back in the same store. This time they concealed items worth more than £320 in her bag and Starr hit a member of staff who tried to stop them leaving.

On August 30, he took a knife off another man near Butcher Terrace off Bishopthorpe Road and threw it away.