A STOURBRIDGE man threatened his frightened former partner with a hammer when she rejected his pleas for a reconciliation.

After making the threats Sean Payne, aged 23, used the hammer to smash her new £500 TV - just a week after he turned up at her home and shattered a window.

Payne at the time was in breach of a restraining order which barred him from having any contact with the woman and forbidding him from going anywhere near her home in Shenstone Avenue, Stourbridge.

He had met his ex-girlfriend in the street by accident and he wrongly perceived it was a way of "re-opening the door" and getting back together, said Oliver Woolhouse defending.

Mr Woolhouse told Wolverhampton Crown Court: "That is why he acted in the way he did when his advances were rejected. He knows he acted in a disgraceful way and his problems are down to alcohol abuse."

Mr Woolhouse said Payne of The Broadway, Norton, accepted it must have been a "frightening and upsetting experience" for his former partner and he was now determined to resolve his alcohol issues and stay out of trouble in the future.

Payne admitted two breaches of his restraining order which was imposed by a court for assaulting his ex-girlfriend when she was punched and slapped on an earlier occasion.

He further admitted two charges of criminal damage and another of affray and he was given a 10 month jail term suspended for two years.

Recorder Benjamin Nicholls further ordered him to carry out 200 hours unpaid work in the community and he made a new restraining order against Payne for ten years.

The Recorder told Payne: "You picked up this hammer and you threatened her with it."

He told Payne, who was also told to pay £140 compensation for the broken window: "I accept your basis of plea that you did not mean to hurt her but what you did caused fear and you were reckless when you threw the hammer and a glass at her. You have a previous history of violence towards this young woman."

Matthew Brook, prosecuting, said ten days after breaking the window Payne went back to the property and it was then he armed himself with the hammer.

After smashing the TV he left the house but he later surrendered himself to police and he was arrested.

Mr Woolhouse said Payne had already spent seven weeks in custody on remand and his time behind bars had given him the chance to reflect on his actions.

Mr Wololhouse added: "Prison has shown him just how much more there is to life."