A man punched his partner in the face during a row after she confronted him about text messages she found on his mobile phone, a court has heard.

Siobhan Patrick woke Antonio Wright up and accused him of being unfaithful and he tried to explain the texts dated back to a period when they were apart six months earlier, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

Miss Patrick left the room and went downstairs and Wright had followed her and punched her in the face causing a cut to her forehead.

Miss Patrick went to hospital and the cut was glued, said Marcus Croskell, prosecuting.

Wright, 25, of Riverside Road, Ipswich, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on March 18 and was given a 26-week prison sentence suspended for two years, two years’ suspervision and ordered to attend a building better relationships course. Sentencing him, Recorder Guy Ayers told Wright there was no justification for what he did.

He said that Miss Patrick left the room and went downstairs and Wright had time to think before delivering a “hard and vicious” blow.

He said the fact that Wright had been in custody for four weeks meant he was able to pass a suspended sentence and not send him straight to prison.

Recorder Ayers made Wright the subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting Miss Patrick and from going to her home in Surbiton Road, Ipswich, for two years.

Roger Thomson, for Wright, said that after hitting Miss Patrick he had immediately apologised and had assisted her to go to the bathroom.

He said that when Miss Patrick woke him up and shouted at him Wright had tried to calm her down.

Mr Thomson said Wright had no previous convictions and worked as a decorator and roofer.