A FAIFLEY thug left his ex bleeding on the ground after he punched her in the face following an angry row over the care of their child.

Kyle Miller fractured his former partner’s eye socket after accusing her of “taking the p***” when he was left to look after the child for more than 24 hours.

Miller appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court for sentencing last Friday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of assaulting the woman to her severe injury at a flat in Hardgate on July 1 last year.

Fiscal depute Sean Maher told the court the 25-year-old, of Langfaulds Crescent, had gone to the property at 2pm the previous day, and had been left looking after the child when his ex and her friend went out at about 10pm, eventually returning at 4pm the next day.

Mr Maher said: “The accused was in a state of anger when they returned, and said ‘you’re taking the p***, you shouldn’t have been out’.

“The argument escalated to the point where it became physical.

“The accused opened the flat door, and the complainer attempted to close it to lock him out, but he stopped her by placing his hand on the door and prising it open again.

“The accused then punched the complainer to the right side of her face.

“The complainer fell to the ground on her hands and knees, with blood coming from her nose. The accused thereafter made off.”

The victim’s mother was contacted, and she phoned police when she saw her daughter’s injury.

The court was told the victim was treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where doctors stated she had an “orbital floor fracture” - a break in the bone around the eye socket.

Police, meanwhile, went to Miller’s home later that day, where he said: “Are you here to see why I punched her?”

Judith Hutchison, defending, said the assault was not pre-planned, and that Miller had got angry because he thought his ex would only be out of the house “for a short period”.

Ms Hutchison told the court: “It is his position, and always has been, that there had been an altercation involving both parties in which he had been struck by the complainer’s handbag - and we’re not talking a small shoulder bag, but a full size bag and its contents.

“The complainer had gone out for what Mr Miller believed would be a very short period of time, and then returned a day later, under the influence of drink and, he believed, other substances.

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“His position is that it wasn’t the punch or physical contact of his hand that caused the injury, but what the complainer fell against, which was either the door or the upright of the door, that she had been projected into.”

“He was, in his own words, raging. But it wasn’t pre-planned - it was an impulsive action, and he does accept he could have dealt with this differently.

“He apologises to the court, and has apologised to the complainer.”

Sheriff Pender agreed to defer sentence for Miller to be assessed for a place on West Dunbartonshire Council’s PAIR Programme, which aims to change the behaviour and attitudes of domestic abuse offenders.

Miller will return to court on September 20.