Former lovers warred in the street over a dead hamster, a court was told today.

Donna Angus, 20, accused Darren Brown, 26, of killing her elderly pet, but he said that it died of old age.

They came to blows when they met in a Redcar street after she broke off their year-long relationship, said Graham Jacobs, prosecuting.

She slapped store worker Brown, but he retaliated by banging her head on a car. When they met up again moments later he pushed her over and dragged her along the ground, Teesside magistrates heard.

Graham Brown, defending, said that since the hamster fracas in Redcar, Brown had moved house to escape harassment.

He told the bench that Brown disputed bouncing her head off a car adding: "She was the originator of the violence. She was accusing him of killing her hamster which had died. He would say it died of old age and from nothing that he had done and following that she slapped him."

Brown of Westbourne Road, Redcar, was given an 18-month community rehabilitation order to include a domestic violence course. He pleaded guilty to the February 28 common assault.

Updated: 16.05 Tuesday, April 17