A MAN who pushed his partner into a bath just after he’d vomited into it after getting drunk at a party in Rosneath told police he’d acted in self-defence.

Jonathon Rolling was told he was on his “very last chance” as he was spared a prison sentence – despite it being his second conviction for domestic violence in less than two years.

The 34-year-old, who attacked his partner at their home in the village in the early hours of December 27, appeared for sentencing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of domestically-aggravated assault at an earlier hearing.

A background report from social workers was ordered after Rolling’s initial appearance.

Fiscal depute Sarah Healing told Friday’s hearing the incident had happened after Rolling got “extremely intoxicated” at a Boxing Day party at another property.

Rolling went home in the early hours, Ms Healing said, and his partner followed him at around 3am.

Ms Healing said: “An argument took place between both parties, which started in the bedroom and made its way to the bathroom.

“Within the bathroom the accused was so intoxicated that he vomited into the bath.

“The complainer attempted to clean this up; the accused then pushed the complainer, causing her to fall into the bath, which she was trying to clean.”

Ms Healing said police had arrested Rolling at around 4am before taking him away for an interview in which he claimed he had pushed the woman in self-defence.

Gail Campbell, defending, told Sheriff Simon Pender: “This was completely unacceptable, unpleasant, undignified and must have been a horrible experience for the complainer.

“One one hand, it is a very positive [social work] report, but he has an analogous previous conviction.

“It seems the comment he made to the police that he pushed her in self-defence was rooted in his recollection that in the course of remonstrating, he pushed past her.

“He accepts that is not self-defence.

“He has confirmed to me and to the writer of the social work report that the penny seems to have dropped in January: he attended his GP of his own volition and attended counselling, albeit for a short period.”

In May 2017, Rolling pleaded guilty to charges of domestic assault and threatening or abusive behaviour following an incident which happened after a barbecue at a friend’s house in April of that year.

Sheriff Simon Pender told Rolling: “I have concluded, on a very narrow margin, that this matter can be dealt with by a direct alternative to a custodial sentence.

“But this is your very last chance.”

Rolling, currently living at Woodilee Bank, Kilcreggan, was handed an 18-month community payback order which will see him under close social work supervision until September 2020.

He was also ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work – the maximum amount available to the sheriff – within 12 months.

Sheriff Pender warned him: “If there is any repetition of this sort of incident, or if you breach the order in any way and come back before me, you must understand that you will be going to jail for a very significant period of time.”