A MAN has been jailed for 16 months for assaulting his partner in Lidl on Bradford’s Manchester Road by headbutting and kicking her in the aisles.

Paul Goudie was locked up with the judge’s warning that the days are gone when such cases were not taken very seriously by the courts.

“Domestic violence will always, always be taken with the utmost seriousness by the courts,” Recorder David Gordon said at Bradford Crown Court on Friday.

The fact that the victim had retracted her police statement and was standing by Goudie was something the court could bear in mind but often happened in such cases, he said.

Goudie, 35, of Canterbury Avenue, Bradford, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and witness intimidation by texting the woman 50 times, when she was in the staff canteen at the store awaiting the police, telling her not to ‘grass him up.’ Prosecutor Nadim Bashir said Goudie had 21 previous convictions for 34 offences, including burglary, witness intimidation, criminal damage and assaulting police officers.

He had served a jail sentence for assaulting a previous partner.

Mr Bashir said he and his latest victim were in Lidl when he became aggressive, headbutted her and kicked her on the leg.

Staff escorted Goudie from the store and took the woman to the canteen. She had a black eye that she said he had caused.

CCTV from the supermarket showed him assaulting her, Mr Bashir said.

She had since retracted her statement and said she was injured falling downstairs.

The woman was in court to support him and did not want a restraining order, the court was told.

In mitigation, it was stated that Goudie had growing insight into his behaviour and recognised that he needed structured help and support with issues surrounding his temper.

He had served the equivalent of a 12-month jail sentence while remanded in custody.

The text messages were unattractive and self-serving but they were in the heat of the moment and no threats of violence were made.

Goudie had post-traumatic stress disorder and other serious mental health problems that he had self-medicated with prescription drugs and alcohol.

Recorder Gordon said Goudie had assaulted the woman during ‘a determined pursuit’ around the supermarket.

He had previous convictions for domestic violence, pushing a previous partner through a glass door, and serving a two-year prison sentence for assaulting a woman.

He conceded that Goudie was genuinely remorseful and that his partner was standing by him.

He was jailed for 12 months for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and four months to run consecutively for witness intimidation.