A woman had her throat squeezed during an assault by her drunk partner in Dunfermline.

The culprit was 23-year-old Sean Gorman, who admitted committing the offence at his home in Law Road.

However, he managed to avoid any punitive sentence when he appeared back in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He previously admitted that on January 11, he assaulted his partner by poking her on the chest, pushed her on the body, placed his hands around her neck, squeezed her neck.

Depute fiscal Charlotte Allan said that the incident occurred at around 12.10am after the victim had used Gorman’s mobile phone to send a message to his mother.

When using the phone, she saw there were messages to him from another female and she woke him up to confront him about this.

Gorman immediately became aggressive and was poking her in the chest. He then pushed her against a towel rail and put his hands around her throat, squeezing it.

She managed to get away from him and called the police. When officers arrived the woman was “visibly upset” and there was reddening to her neck.

Defence solicitor Amy Harley said: “He tells me that day he was angry with the world. He had consumed a large amount of alcohol and he’s disgusted by his behaviour.”

Sheriff John MacRitchie said he was prepared to deal with the offence as “a one-off aberration” and decided “a punitive element would not be proportionate”.

He imposed a community payback order with 12 months of supervision.

The sheriff told Gorman: “Learn the lesson and take the chance I’m giving you.”