A DRINK-DRIVER crashed into a tree after he carried out a “shameful” assault on his girlfriend at her home.

Dale Dickens, 32, from Abertillery put his hands into the kitchen sink after urinating into it and then dried them in her hair.

Andrew Davies, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court he damaged some of her belongings while “intoxicated” before he got behind the wheel of his red Mazda car.

Police were called after Dickens “collided with a tree” on the A4119 in Tonyrefail in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

When officers arrived, they found the defendant in the back of an ambulance.

“They said his eyes were glazed and he was smelling strongly of alcohol,” Mr Davies said.

“He agreed to provide a sample of breath but asked, ‘Why? I only had a bottle of lager ages ago.’”

When the defendant was breathalysed, he was more than twice over the limit after giving a reading of 80 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

Dickens then urinated in his cell at the police station.

He was also being sentenced for separate alcohol-fuelled offences that took place at Arail Street in the Six Bells area of Abertillery on February 24, 2023.

On that occasion a neighbour contacted the police over concerns over the defendant’s behaviour when he was seen in the street holding a bottle of vodka in one hand and a knife in the other.

When officers arrived Dickens was wearing a saucepan on his head and he later spat in a police vehicle when was taken into custody.

He pleaded guilty to affray, possession of a bladed article in public, assault by beating, drink driving and three counts of criminal damage.

The defendant had no previous convictions.

Paul Hewitt representing Dickens said his client had already served nearly the equivalent of a six-month jail sentence after he was remanded in custody in September.

“I asked him this morning what he’s been doing in prison,” his barrister told the court. “He replied, ‘I’ve been sober,’”

The defendant had been suffering with alcohol and mental health problems but was “capable of being rehabilitated”.

Recorder Andrew Hammond told Dickens: “Placing your hands in a sink into which you had urinated and then using her hair to dry your hands was a shameful act.”

The defendant was jailed for 10 months but the sentence was suspended for 18 months.

He will have to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and complete a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Dickens was also made the subject of a mental health treatment requirement and a 120-day alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement.