A DAD-TO-BE threw his pregnant girlfriend over a garden fence, smashed a patio door with a trowel and flicked blood at his mum.

Matthew Reynolds had been due to be sentenced by magistrates last week after the 26-year-old admitted two assault charges and criminal damage.

But a riot at Winchester prison, where the man was being held after a bail breach, meant he had to wait a week before he could be sentenced.

Swindon JPs opted against sending him back to prison, instead giving him a two-year community order with a requirement to complete 92 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation days.

Sentencing him, chairman of the bench Martin Clarke said: “The ball’s in your court now, Mr Reynolds. Be that good dad you want to be.”

Prosecuting, Tom Power said Reynolds had been at his mum’s home. The pair had planned to bake a cake to celebrate news his girlfriend was pregnant. But magistrates’ heard Reynolds, who has attention deficit disorder, had become angry when those plans didn’t materialise.

He smashed two panes of glass in his mum’s welsh dresser before picking a trowel and smashing the glass in a patio door. Reynolds went outside, where his mum was gardening. He pushed her to the ground, then began flicking blood from a wound received smashing the glass.

Mr Power said Reynolds and his girlfriend had been in a relationship for four months. He had pushed, shoved and restrained her a number of times: “She was thrown over a fence by the defendant and cut her eyebrow.”

Reynolds, 26, of Bratton Close, Penhill, pleaded admitted two counts of assault and criminal damage.

Defending, Emma Thacker said he had a difficult relationship with his mother. After hearing his girlfriend was pregnant he was unsure about whether she would keep the baby.

After being remanded in custody by magistrates for breaching bail, Reynolds was sent to Winchester Prison. Shortly before was due to be sent back to the Swindon court for sentence, prisoners on another wing and rampaged through the jail.

As a result the prison was put on lockdown and Reynolds, who was not involved , was held for seven days until he could be put before the courts.

Magistrates ordered an eight month restraining order and told him to pay £200 compensation.