IPSWICH: A teenager who strangled his ex-girlfriend during a vicious and sustained attack has been spared jail.

IPSWICH: A teenager who strangled his ex-girlfriend during a vicious and sustained attack has been spared jail.

Magistrates told Nathan Wainwright his suspended three week jail term was “not a bad deal” after he admitted battering his former partner, following the termination of their unborn baby.

The 19-year-old told police he wanted to kill the young woman for “killing his child” as he throttled her in her home on October 2.

Wainwright, who has appeared on daytime chat show Trisha on three occasions to be reunited with estranged relatives, was told his sentence would be suspended for a year.

South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard how he had stopped taking medication, prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), on the day of the attack so that he could go out drinking with friends.

But Wainwright, who lives with his mother in Rydal Walk, Ipswich, ended up at the home of his ex-girlfriend who, two weeks earlier, had undergone the abortion of a child fathered by him.

The two bickered about former partners and at one point Wainwright began to “wind her up” by chatting with other women on the internet. The argument escalated and Wainwright launched a sustained attack on his ex, during which he kicked her in the chest, strangled her and stopped her from escaping through a window.

When police arrested him, Wainwright claimed it was he who was the victim of an assault and said he had only been told about the abortion that day. However, he later accepted the young woman's account of the attack.

Shelley Lapatrie, representing Wainwright, said her client felt “very emotionally upset” by the termination.

“He accepts he has an anger management issue which he needs to deal with,” she added.

Magistrates ordered Wainwright to pay �100 compensation to his victim plus court costs. He must also attend an anger management programme and is prohibited from contacting his victim during that time.

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