A KENT man cut short his holiday in America when he heard his former girlfriend was going to see someone else.

Toran Nicholls, aged 36, of Shakespeare Road, Birchington, flew home and then assaulted her, Canterbury Crown Court was told.

Nicholls spent seven months in custody after being arrested for attacking Barbara Mayo but was released by the judge under a three-year conditional discharge, having admitted assaulting Ms Mayo, causing her actual bodily harm.

Oliver Saxby, prosecuting, said the two were in a five-year relationship that ended in late 2005, but it was something Nicholls could not accept.

Some contact continued and in late June he flew to New York with a new girlfriend. However, he constantly tried to contact Ms Mayo. When he learned she was planning to see someone else, he abandoned the holiday and flew home, and drove back to Minster, where Ms Mayo working at the New Inn.

She spotted him and went outside to avoid an incident in the pub and as he led her to his car, he pushed her causing her to fall and hurt her face, knee, foot and hand.

As he drove the car he waved his arm about and hit her again as he drove to his flat in London.

The police were alerted by a friend of Ms Mayo’s and another witness called the police after seeing Nicholls driving erratically.

Martin Griffith, for Nicholls, said the pair had previously enjoyed a holiday together. He accepted when he led her to his car, he pushed her, and he also accepted striking her while driving.

When officers went to his flat, they found the pair in bed together and while in custody she had visited him 32 times.

Nicholls was the proprietor of a children’s home in Birchington which had to close because he would have lost his licence and Mr Griffith submitted he had served almost the equivalent of a 16-month sentence.

Sentencing Nicholls, Judge Anthony Webb said Nicholls had lost his temper and inflicted harm on his ex-girlfriend.

He warned Nicholls: “If in the next three years you commit any further offences, particularly if you do anything physical to Barbara Mayo, you will be going to prison for a very long time.”