MAGISTRATES have imposed a domestic violence protection order on a man accused of being abusive to his wife and transgender child on New Year’s Eve.

Police told the bench at a hearing in Swindon on Tuesday that the alarm was raised after his wife ran to neighbours, crying and pleading for help.

Officers were told by the woman and her son that her husband had assaulted them both, but after he was arrested she said she did not want to give a statement.

The couple’s son told police he had intervened in an argument between his parents, but his father verbally abused him and threw lager over him and his mother before grabbing his hair and threatening to kill him.

In his statement the teenager said he had to punch his father to get him away. He added that his father was restrained from getting a knife from the kitchen.

The court heard police had been called to the house on previous occasions, including in January 2014 when it was alleged he had assaulted his wife and son and again in December that year for an accusation of assault on his son.

Last summer police were called because he harmed himself with a knife and said he wanted to kill himself. He also smashed his computer when he wife said she wanted to leave him.

Gordon Hotson, contesting the order on behalf of the man, said his wife no longer supported the police application and wanted him to be allowed to return home.

The defendant had told police the argument started because his son aged 17 had been drinking all day and demanded more alcohol.

The man claimed the boy had grabbed his hair and he responded to make him let go. His wife intervened and might have fallen over, but he disputed the suggestion he had pushed her onto the floor.

“He would say the problems on December 31 arose as a result of his son’s drinking and not as his son has said, that he cannot accept his decision regarding gender,” said Mr Hotson.

“He will say that he has supported him through the gender realignment process, which has been going on since he was 13.

“He did discuss it with him over time to make him aware of what he was doing. That does not indicate that he does not support the decision.

“He is not taunting him and he does not use the wrong gender-specific pronouns deliberately.

“When you have had a daughter for a number of years that suddenly becomes a son, it is understandable that there are errors from time to time.”

The magistrates agreed with Mr Hotson’s suggestion that rather than banning the man from the family home outright, it should simply make a 14-day order banning him from molesting his wife and his son.