A MAN who battered his ex-girlfriend with a motorbike helmet has been spared jail.

Keiron Banks pleaded not guilty to two counts of assaulting his then partner, and was tried at Warrington Magistrates Court on Monday, January 23.

The 29-year-old was subsequently found guilty, and the case was adjourned for sentencing until Wednesday, February 22.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor, Laura Simpson told the court how, on December 7, 2021, Banks and his girlfriend had been arguing about a time when they had been having a relationship break.

He became angry and punched the victim in the side of her face, causing a lot of bruising.

After around six weeks of not speaking, though text messages were exchanged, Banks went to the victim’s Barnton home on January 19, 2022, to retrieve his bike.

When the victim refused to help him move the bike down the road, Banks took her phone away from her, then ‘picked her up by both arms, using both his hands, then slammed her to the floor,’ according to Ms Simpson.  

While she was on the floor, he hit her in the head with a motorcycle helmet, causing significant bruising, then left the property before she was able to get up.

He returned shortly after, then left again.

Ms Simpson said the offence was aggravated because there were two assaults on the same victim, and that during the second assault, the victim’s young child was in the house.

She added that, at the time of the assault, Banks was on probation after leaving prison. 

Banks has 11 convictions for 22 offences, including three breaches of non-molestation orders, and two prison sentences of 14 and 20 weeks for assaults on two previous girlfriends in 2020 and 2022.

He also faced nine months in prison after absconding from lawful custody and remaining on the run for two weeks in June 2022 after police tried to arrest him.

Defending, Tony Birchall said Banks had aways denied the charges, maintaining ‘that he did not strike her with the helmet,’ though he accepted he had been ‘properly convicted of assault'.

He also said the prosecution ‘had offered no evidence of any injury’ with the motorbike helmet.  

Passing sentence, the presiding magistrate said the bench had ‘thought long and hard’ and had decided that a 26-week custodial sentence was appropriate.

However, the sentence was suspended for 18 months, because there seemed to be ‘a realistic chance of rehabilitation, through work with the probation service'.

Banks, of Juniper Grove, Runcorn, was ordered to pay £500 compensation to his victim, £300 court costs to the Crown Prosecution Service, and a £128 victim surcharge.

He is also subject to an 18-month community order, to include 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and 200 hours unpaid work. 

He was also given a restraining order, with conditions not the contact the victim, or to enter the street she lives on.