A convicted thug who attacked his father and ex-partner just weeks after avoiding a jail sentence has now been locked up.

Aaron Newton, of Fountains Way, Oswaldtwistle, was given a suspended sentence in March this year for wounding.

However, less than a month later, he was arrested for two assaults against his ex-partner in which he punched her to the face, pulled out a ‘clump of hair’ from her head and called her liar.

Then just a day after his release on bail for that offence, the roofing worker punched and wrestled his father Edward Gordon as they watched a television programme about prisons, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Aaron Newton, 31, of Fountains Way, Oswaldtwistle.

Newton, 31, was found guilty after a trial of three counts of common assault and was jailed for two years.

Colette Renton, prosecuting, said the assaults against his ex-partner happened at her home on April 22 and the early hours of April 23 this year.

The court heard how they were spending an evening with the victim’s family when an argument developed about who the victim was talking to on the phone.

Miss Renton said ‘after receiving verbal abuse for an hour’ from Newton the victim told him ‘stop it, you’re boring me’.

Newton then stood up and pulled her hair, with a ‘clump’ coming out of the back of her head, before she ran upstairs.

At around 5am the next morning Newton returned to her home and she let him in after he started ‘shouting her name loudly’.

Miss Renton said another argument then developed over what she was wearing to bed and Newton called her a liar before punching her to the face.

The court heard how Newton was later bailed and on May 4 – the day after his release – he assaulted his father as they were watching a television programme about prison.

She said: “The defendant had talked about spending time in custody recently and the complainant said ‘if you do the crime, you do the time, face up to it’.

“The defendant then erupted, stood over his father and made threats towards him before starting to wrestle him.”

The court heard how Newton then said ‘I will ******* kill you’ before being separated by his mother and a neighbour.

He later told police he felt ‘cheesed off’ about the prison comment.

Judge Beverley Lunt said it was ‘ridiculous’ she could not give Newton a stiffer sentence for assaulting his father and ex-partner.

Activating the 18-month suspended sentence and an extra six months for the assaults, she told Newton: “You were given a chance with a suspended sentence and various orders to assist you. You didn’t last one month.

“Of course that sentence must be activated in its entirety.

It hadn’t even had a chance to take any form of hold because of your actions.

“In my judgement the three assaults, none of which you had the courage to admit so they had to give evidence during a trial, deserve far more than six months in total in prison.

“But the law ridiculously doesn’t permit me to impose a longer sentence than a total of six months for three such assaults.”

Darren Lee-Smith, defending, said Newton accepts the relationship with his ex-partner is ‘over’ and that he has since ‘built bridges with his father’.

He said: “There are elements of promise he can offer the community when he is released. He accepts the conviction, accepts he will be punished and will get his head down in custody.”