A MAN has been handed a suspended sentence after pushing his long-term partner in a row over misplaced school trousers.

James Cooper pushed the woman he has been in a relationship with for 17 years after an argument where he had been drinking and taking cocaine at their home in Oakland Road, Dovercourt.

She cut her head of a doorframe and left the house.

Cooper, 32, called the police and ambulance service and she was eventually found.

The dad-of-seven admitted assault at a Colchester Magistrates’ Court hearing.

He told the probation service he regularly drank alcohol to cope with stressful situation and then topped up with cocaine to give him more energy.

Cooper said he was hoping to engage with addiction support charity Open Road to get help.

The landscape gardener was handed a six week prison sentenced suspended for a year after the incident in April.

Cooper must also attend 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days and pay £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.