A FORMER professional snooker player who throttled and punched an ex-partner in an “ugly” display of violence has been jailed.

A crown court judge told 39-year-old Adam Davies the attack he launched on his ex-partner in Colchester was “a disaster waiting to happen”.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard in February last year a drunken row between the pair spiralled into violence.

Judge David Turner QC said there were “issues of drink, jealousy and rows”, culminating in Davies punching the woman and throttling her.

The court was told the assault left the woman with a cut to the bridge of her nose and a bloody lip.

Davies denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but failed to attend a trial at the magistrates’ court, where he was convicted in his absence.

He appealed against the conviction, but Judge Turner and two justices upheld the verdict.

Judge Turner said: “I accept I didn’t necessarily hear the full story of what happened, your case is that she flipped and was largely the aggressor. Her case was that you simply assaulted her.

“I accept you had a black right eye, that you yourself had a cut to your nose and you were seen at the police station to have some fresh scratches to your hands.

“This was, on any view, a complex incident.”

The court heard a non-molestation was put in place, but Davies breached the order by messaging the victim.

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Judge Turner said: “I accept the breaches were not the gravest, you were messaging or contacting one another in various communications.

“Again and not for the first time you were threatening to harm yourself.

“It’s a means you use to try to manipulate situations, it’s sad that you feel the need to resort to that, but that is the reality.”

Steven Levy, mitigating, said Davies was suffering “terribly” with his mental health at the time of the assault and wasn’t taking his medication.

He said after the breakdown of the relationship, Davies moved away from Colchester and was unaware the trial was set to take place.

Mr Levy said his client had spent almost two months in custody, where he is on a “stable programme” of medication.

“He now has a very positive outlook on his life,” he said.

“He’s someone who, in his younger years, was in the professional front of snooker

“When he had the responsibilities of a family, the responsibilities of children, he then started working in the railway.

“He tells me if he is to be given his liberty his plan is to go and live with his mother. Further to that, he has got the opportunity of working with his brother.”

Judge Turner said: “It is a pity a person of your sporting talent in the realm of snooker has seen their life take such a difficult turn.

“You are certainly, I have no doubt at all, a mentally fragile person. I think you probably do need help of some kind.”

He added: “This was a serious and ugly incident.

“Throttling someone as you did in a domestic context, where there are drunken exchanges, is a disaster waiting to happen.

“It wasn’t only throttling. There were, I have no doubt at all, a number of blows struck directly to her face and head, causing cuts.

“That said, I accept it wasn’t all one way, and I’ve reflected that in sentence.”

Davies, of Havering Close, Clacton, was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment and hit with a three-year restraining order banning contact with the victim.