A FATHER of three has been fined by a court for battering his former partner in a drunken bust up at a top Irvine hotel.

John McDermott attacked the woman at the Riverside Lodge Hotel in Annick Road on July 17 this year.

The 51-year-old admitted assaulting his then girlfriend when he appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week.

Thursday’s hearing was told that the couple checked into the four-star venue at 4pm on the day and then had dinner together, before eventually returning to their room at around 12.30am later that night.

An argument then ensued and a disturbance broke out, with the procurator fiscal depute telling the court that staff at the hotel’s reception desk had already received calls from other guests about a disturbance coming from the pair’s room by the time police were phoned.

Police attended the hotel and spoke to McDermott in the room before he was later charged.

According to the charge, to which McDermott pleaded guilty, he assaulted the woman by seizing hold of her clothing, pushing her to the ground, seizing hold of her neck with both hands, repeatedly kicking her on the face and thereafter seizing hold of her neck and pushing her, causing her to fall to the ground to her injury. The offence was aggravated by involving his partner or ex partner.

Representing himself at last week’s hearing, McDermott - a father of three who works on the roads with a national operator - said his relationship with the woman has since ended.

He told the court: “The two of us were drunk, things got out of hand, and I apologise.”

Sheriff Colin Bissett fined McDermott, of Kinglas Court in Gartcosh, a total of £840.