A MAN has been jailed after attacking his ex-girlfriend and trying to smash her door in front of their two children.

Leslie Cowe, 28, who is already serving an 18-months sentence for car crime, was jailed for six months yesterday.

He had earlier been cleared of kidnapping and beating his former lover in a bid to get her to drop court charges against him.

But Cowe, who admitted causing criminal damage in June 1999, was found guilty of causing actual bodily harm to former partner Gail Prest in June 1998.

Judge Esmond Faulks said: "You came home in the early hours of the morning and you beat her up because you suspected she had been unfaithful to you.

"As a result of that beating she sustained multiple soft tissue injuries. She was left covered in blood and had to be assisted by your 14-year-old babysitter, who must have got the shock of her life. The second offence again occurred in a towering rage and again in front of those two children who you say you love so much."

Cowe, now of Whitton Drive, Spennymoor, County Durham, had kicked the front door of the house before hitting it with a spade causing £400 of damage.

The judge said: "Those children must have been utterly terrified seeing their father shouting those vile things at their mother. You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself."

Cowe was also given a three-month sentence for the criminal damage to run concurrently