A WEYMOUTH teenager has been convicted of drunkenly assaulting his then girlfriend shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Harry Charles Motte, of Walpole Street, denied a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm as well as an offence of destroying property and faced trial at Dorchester Crown Court.

The 18-year-old, pictured, was accused of pushing his victim and hitting her in the face, leaving her with a broken nose.

The criminal damage charge relates to damage caused to a window pane, door frame and handle on the same date.

The jury was told that on New Year’s Eve Motte had been out at a party with friends while his girlfriend had stayed in.

She contacted him at around 11.30pm because she wanted to see the New Year in with him and he turned up at her house just after midnight in a drunken state.

Prosecutor Mary Aspinall-Miles said the victim accepted she was ‘grumpy’ at the state her boyfriend was in and when he came inside an argument had broken out.

Motte’s then girlfriend said she lifted his chin to look him in the eye when he reacted by swinging out his arm.

She said: “He threw his arm out and threw me across the room and I landed on my desk.”

She added that her head hit the wall as well as she fell.

The teenager said Motte then went to walk away and she went to grab him, at which point he turned round and hit her in the face. The prosecution claimed the damage to the door was caused as Motte attempted to leave the property, only to find the door locked so he attempted to force his way out.

The victim saw her injured face in the mirror a short time after and told the court: “There was blood everywhere, it looked terrible.

“I dropped to the floor the second I saw it.”

The defendant told the jury that during the argument she had grabbed his head with both hands and started shaking it.

He said: “I pushed her away but I made sure I wasn’t causing her any harm at all.

“She went back on to her desk but not forcefully.”

Motte denied punching his girlfriend or swinging his arm in such a way as to throw her across the room.

When asked in cross examination how he believed she had broken her nose, Motte replied: “I have no way of telling you how she did that.”

He went on to suggest that the injury had been self inflicted.

After the jury had come to their guilty verdict on both charges, Judge Douglas Field adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Motte was bailed to return to court to be sentenced on October 27 and was warned that all sentencing options, including a custodial sentence, would be considered.