A THUG who left his partner pouring in blood after a drunken argument has been spared jail.

The row began upstairs at their shared house, before continuing on the ground floor where Mark Lamb shoved the woman.

She toppled backwards and fell over a treadmill leaving her with facial injuries.

Realising he had made a mistake, Lamb, 39, took her to hospital.

The woman initially decline to pursue the case, but later changed her mind and made a complaint to the police.

Lamb, now of Lilac Tree Court, Colchester, told police what he had done and would later admit a charge of wounding.

A second assault charge was dropped.

In a moving victim impact statement read out at Ipswich Crown Court, the woman said the attack had changed her life completely.

“I have looked into his eyes many times to seek assurance and show love but the intent to harm he had in them that night was like nothing I had seen before,” she said.

“I am now petrified of the man who was once the closest person to me.

“This incident has left me a prisoner in my own home.”

Lamb agreed for the hearing to go ahead without his counsel present.

In mitigation, he said: “I am sorry for what happened.

“It was never meant to be a serious assault and I was mortified she got hurt.

“We had an argument which was not all one way and in the end I did hurt her.

“It was never my intention.”

Judge Martyn Levett said Lamb had a “deplorable” record of 40 previous convictions for 88 offences but noted none of them were for violence.

He said Lamb’s remorse and the impact a jail term would have on others led him to suspend his year-long prison sentence for two years.

Lamb must complete 80 hours of unpaid work, 35 rehabilitation days and an accredited programme designed to reduce the risk of similar offending.

A restraining order was also made banning him from contacting the victim for two years, save for through agreed third parties.

He is also barred from her home, the home of her parents and her place of work.