A thug who beat up his ex-girlfriend when she was nine months pregnant with his baby has avoided a jail sentence.

Lauren Punt was a week overdue when taken to the William Harvey Hospital, in Ashford, after Linton Hales assaulted her in front of their young daughter.

A judge said it would not "appease the ordinary man in the street", but there was a more constructive way of punishing 24-year-old Hales than sending him to prison for a short time.

Imposing four months' imprisonment, suspended for 18 months with supervision and 100 hours unpaid work, Judge Jeremy Carey added: "It is not a let-off. Frankly, it is more onerous than sitting in a cell."

Hales, formerly of Gordon Close, Ashford, admitted common assault and being in breach of a suspended sentence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the couple were in a relationship for about a year and parted in December 2009.

Keith Yardy, prosecuting, said after the birth of their child they began seeing each other again and she became pregnant.

"rather than treating her with... tenderness, you beat her up and you should be ashamed of yourself…” – judge jeremy carey

Hales, a father-of-seven, was supposed to take their daughter out on February 1 last year, but could not do so because he was in court receiving a suspended sentence for drugs offences.

He later sent Miss Punt a text asking if he could see his daughter. She then saw him climbing in the window of her ground floor flat in Ashford.

Hales shouted at her, saying she was stopping him seeing his child.

She asked him to leave, but he pushed her against a wall and punched her at least once, said Mr Yardy. She slumped to the floor and then felt her distressed daughter tugging at her trousers.

Miss Punt went to a neighbour's home, where she collapsed. She was taken to hospital, where the baby was found to be unharmed. The victim suffered bite marks and bruises.

Judge Jeremy Carey told Hales he probably thought leaving court and assaulting his ex-girlfriend was a perfectly proper thing to do.

"Rather than treating her with consideration, if not tenderness, you beat her up and you should be ashamed of yourself," he said.

"The choices are simple - either go to prison for a few months and you can sit it out, no doubt feeling sorry for yourself, or the court can punish you with unpaid work."