Court proceedings against a former magistrate accused of assaulting a girlfriend came to a halt today, with the jury being discharged.

But Paul Geldart, 44, will have to come back for a re-trial, probably later in the year, before Judge Maurice Carr.

Mr Geldart, a former borough councillor as well as a JP in Darlington, denies assaulting Melanie Lumsden, causing her actual bodily harm, in an incident in August last year.

He is alleged to have thrown a picture frame which struck her in the face, following a confrontation at a house of a friend of Miss Lumsden, in Mitchell Street, Darlington.

The prosecution claim he threw it deliberately, angry as he believed she was seeing a former boyfriend behind his back.

But he claims that while he felt "upset and humiliated", he just flung the frame over his shoulder as he left the house and did not intend to cause Miss Lumsden any harm.

The trial began at Durham Crown Court last week, but on the scheduled fourth day of the hearing Judge Carr discharged the jury due to procedural problems which emerged in the case.

He reserved further proceedings to himself and bailed Mr Geldart, of Hercules Street, Darlington, to return to court at an unspecified future listing date.