A MAN who attacked his partner and also assaulted her friend in two separate outbursts was spared jail - but magistrates slammed his behaviour as despicable.

Burnley magistrates heard that Shaun Adam Taylor, 39, turned on terrified victim Diane Connearn in front of her pregnant daughter.

He threw hot coffee over her, hit her and then slung a chair at her causing it to smash.

Taylor, of Huttock End Lane, Stacksteads, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm last June and assault by beating in February.

He was given a two-year community order with the domestic violence programme and must pay £800 compensation and £150 costs.