A 'monster' who had been arrested for assaulting and threatening to kill his partner tried to escape from a police station exercise yard.

Steven Beeton, who turns nasty on drink and drugs, scaled the wall at Gablecross where he was being held for his latest bout of offending.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the 32-year-old had been arrested for assaulting the mother of his two children.

He said "She says variously in her statements that by and large he is a decent man but when he drinks and smokes cannabis he turns in to a bit of a monster."

On the morning of Monday January 15 Mr Meeke said Beeton turned up at the house when she was out and was drunk and unpleasant.

"Later in the evening he arrived at the house again, apparently drunk, and kicking the door and threatening to kick it in. Police officers were called but he left before they got there.

"The next day, in the early hours of the morning, he started sending her frightening and threatening text messages.

"One read 'You have got two minutes to let me in or I'll kill you, I'll burn you'. She thought the whole house was being shaken down as he was banging on the back door.

"It seems he had smashed windows and let himself in to the premises but was prevented from initially getting upstairs, but he eventually forced past her mother who was in the property.

"He forced his way upstairs. He was heading towards the children's bedrooms. She tried to stop him, he ran up the stairs, pushed her away with full body weight. She fell at the top of the stairs."

He said fortunately the woman was not badly injured in the incident which took place in her own home.

When the defendant was arrested and taken to the police station he asked to get some fresh air and was allowed into the exercise yard.

But he then scaled the wall and, as officers shouted at him to come back down, climbed on to the roof.

Beeton, of Nyland Road, Nythe, admitted sending a malicious communication, criminal damage, assault by beating and attempted escape.

The court was told that he was on a suspended sentence at the time of the offending so accepted he was facing jail.

Judge Tim Mousley QC said that as the case involved domestic violence he would need a full presentence from the probation service.

He said that he had read a statement from the victim of the assault in which she said she thought the defendant needed help.

Beeton, who appeared in court by videolink from prison, was remanded in custody so the report could be compiled.