ESTRANGED husband Richard Carter had been on a drunken binge before turning up on his wife's doorstep in the early hours demanding to see his son, a court heard.

ESTRANGED husband Richard Carter had been on a drunken binge before turning up on his wife's doorstep in the early hours demanding to see his son, a court heard.

Carter, of Seymour Road, Ipswich, admitted assaulting his wife Alicia and her friend Lorraine Marlow, by pushing them. He also pleaded guilty to causing £30 worth of damage to a mobile telephone.

The 25-year-old, of Seymour Road, had drunk about six pints before he turned up at the matrimonial home at 2 am, prosecutor Patricia Doggitt, told magistrates.

"Alicia Carter objected because she didn't want the defendant to be doing that in the state he was in and at that time of the morning," said Miss Doggitt. He assaulted both women by pushing them in bid to see his son, South East Suffolk magistrates were told.

The court heard both women later made withdrawal statements saying they didn't feel Carter was a threat.

Mitigating, Tanya Thomas, said Carter had gone out drinking with friend and had probably drunk about seven or eight pints of larger, which he wouldn't usually do.

"He had got into his head he wanted to see his son," said Thomas. "He accepts it was a foolish thing to do," said Thomas. "He wouldn't have done that if he had not been drinking."

She described Carter as a "genuinely hard working man" and said it had been a fairly amicable split with his wife.

Bench chairman David Rowe told him: "The aggravating feature was that it was an act of domestic violence."

Carter was fined £100 for each assault, ordered him to pay £30 compensation for the phone and to pay both woman £25 compensation. He was also ordered to pay £55 costs.