A TEENAGER who assaulted his girlfriend then tried to get her to drop the charges has been spared jail and sent to live at a home found for him in Cornwall.

Daniel Read was already on a suspended sentence for robbery and being housed in a town centre hotel when he launched the two assaults.

The 19-year-old then repeatedly tried to get her drop the charges and made an abusive phone call to a probation officer.

Now after hearing he had spent all but a few days out of jail in the past ten months a judge has imposed a suspended sentence and told him to live in Cornwall.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Read was housed by social services in the Jury's Inn late last year.

On Wednesday, November 12, his girlfriend Kayleigh Nicholls was staying there with him when they had an argument.

They were in the bedroom when he pushed her over causing an injury to her wrist which was X-rayed at hospital and found not to be broken.

When the police were called she told them that the bruises and marks on legs were when he pinched, punched and kicked her over previous days.

After being questioned Read was released on bail, and during that time he made an abusive call to a probation officer where he threatened her.

Miss Squire said over the following days he breached the terms of his suspended sentence and was remanded into custody.

During that time he sent love letters to Miss Nicholls in which he asked her to withdraw the assault charges.

And he made similar requests when he phoned her from the young offenders institute where he was being detained.

Read, of Booth House, Spring Gardens, pleaded guilty to two counts of common assault, one of witness intimidation and one of making a malicious communication.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said although he was on a suspended sentence at the time that had been allowed to continue by another judge in December.

Before he was put on that sentence, imposed for robbing a youngster of his bike, he had been in custody on remand.

He said: "This young man has been in custody long enough bearing in mind his age.

"You Honour, having heard the outline of the witness intimidation that kept him in custody, it is by no means the worst intimidation.

"Daniel Read needs, in my submission, a new start. He has not helped himself. He has offended over the years. Since August last year he has only been free for two weeks."

He said his client was being supported by Seqol at the time he was put in the hotel and they have now found him a home with a couple in Saltash.

Passing sentence Recorder Michael Vere-Hodge QC said: "You are only 19 and for reasons, some of which are of your own making and some of which are not, you have had a pretty dreadful start and you have been in the courts on a number of occasions.

"It is said on your behalf and I entirely agree you need a new start. You need to get away from this kind of criminal behaviour.

"On this occasions the court can help, but I have to say your future is in your hands and if you do not take the help that is available to you, and you should be grateful it is available to you.

"People have taken the trouble to come here to offer accommodation to you. If you throw it all away you will be the one person most responsible for that.

"The future, and there is no reason to suspect you haven't got a very happy and fulfilling future in front of you, is entirely in your hands."

He imposed a five-month jail term suspended for 18 months with supervision and a requirement he lives at an address in Saltash.