A DRUNKEN argument led to a man splitting his partner’s head open with a ceramic bowl, a court heard.

Peterlee Magistrates’ Court was told on Wednesday (August 27) that Paul Lyons had been drinking vodka, cider and larger with his partner throughout the day when they began arguing at about 9.30pm.

A call from Lyons’ landlady sparked an argument which prosecutor Vickie Wilson said led to Lyons’ hitting his partner twice over the head; once with a beer bottle and once with a ceramic bowl, leaving her cut and bleeding.

Lyons, of Earl Close, Darlington, denied hitting the woman with a bottle but admitted using a bowl so pleaded guilty to assault on that basis.

Mrs Wilson said: “He has split her head open with the use of a weapon, he hit her, which is very nasty.”

Reading from the victim’s statement, Mrs Wilson said the injured woman was shocked when after the assault Lyons remarked that her “hair looked nice red”.

Mrs Wilson said that Lyons told his, now ex, partner he would take her to the hospital as long as she said that she got the injury by falling down the stairs.

Mitigating, Leanne Galbraith said that 49-year-old Lyons was remorseful about the incident.

She added that his victim continued to stay with him for the rest of the weekend and it was only when she saw her daughter two days after the attack that she called the police.

Magistrates declined jurisdiction and adjourned the case to be heard at Teesside Crown Court on a date to be fixed.