A SACKED senior lecturer who was cleared of assaulting his pregnant ex-lover has dropped his employment tribunal bid for unfair dismissal against Coleg Gwent.

Stephen Lewis, the former head of the school of engineering at Newport’s Nash College, has withdrawn his claim against his former employers.

He walked away from Cardiff Crown Court in March a free man when a jury acquitted him of punching his pregnant lover in the stomach after it was claimed she refused to have an abortion.

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The 39-year-old had denied attacking the woman.

It had been alleged during the five-day trial that Mr Lewis had also punched his three-month pregnant ex-girlfriend in the mouth, drawing blood, and threatened to kill her.

He was cleared of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after claiming he had acted in self-defence.

Giving evidence, the defendant said he “never suggested” that he wanted her to have an abortion and claims he was “very supportive”.

He was described in witness statements made on his behalf, read to the court by his barrister Susan Ferrier, as “polite, professional and courteous”.

The jury were told that Mr Lewis, of Hafodyrynys, was a man of “good character” with no previous convictions.

The court heard the defendant, who was already in a long-term relationship with another woman, took the complainant out for dinner in Cardiff Bay to discuss parenting plans.

The jury were told the pair had argued and he claimed he was attacked by her as he drove her home and attempted to filter onto the M4 motorway.

Mr Lewis said: “She was trying to get an answer out of me. I was saying, ‘I’m not comfortable about coming to your house’. She didn’t like it. She became cold and frosty.”

He said the woman become “irate” and quizzed him about where his commitments lay.

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“I wasn’t responding to her and I told her I wasn’t going to get involved in this kind of conversation while she was like that," Mr Lewis told the court.

“She started shouting at me because I wasn’t responding to her. She turned to face me in her seat and she just kept shouting. Then she pushed me in the head."

He added: “Then she hit me. She hit me in the head with her fist about six times in total."

The complainant is then alleged to have spat at Lewis, who admitted striking out at her with his hand.

Mr Lewis said: “I lashed out and made contact with her face."

He said the complainant demanded to be let out of the car but he refused, saying: “I’m not just going to leave a pregnant woman on the motorway at night” before driving her home.

When asked for a comment about the employment tribunal withdrawal, a spokesperson from Coleg Gwent said: “We can confirm that Stephen Lewis is a former employee of Coleg Gwent.

“A case was taken to an industrial tribunal but was subsequently withdrawn and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”