AN ALBANIAN has been jailed after pleading guilty to attacking his ex-girlfriend in front of their child.

Dali Buzhiqi punched Donna Catalbi "several times" in her Newcastle home and later told police he became angry after a man mocked his accent after answering her phone.

The 29-year-old defendant, of no fixed abode, caused Ms Catalbi actual bodily harm in the assault in March last year.

The couple had been together for 12 months when they had a son in October 2008, but the relationship ended the following month.

And on the weekend of March 14 last year, Buzhiqi phoned Ms Catalbi constantly.

He was living in London at the time and drove to her home in Hollinshead Road, let himself in and attacked her in front the couple's son and the victim's two children from a previous relationship.

Robert Price, prosecuting, said: "He punched her several times to the face, eyes and head. She described feeling dazed and was seeing a white light. He threatened to return.

"She had two black eyes, a bruise to her left arm and scratching to her face."

In a report she said she has been left feeling angry, frightened and embarrassed.

Buzhiqi told police he became angry when a man had answered Ms Catalbi's phone and ridiculed his accent.

Michelle Heeley, in mitigation, said: "He accepts it was an overreaction. When he was 17 he saw his father shot dead by police.

"In his formative years he was exposed to violence, that was the way to sort things out. He has post-traumatic stress."

Judge Granville Styler sentenced the defendant to 12 months imprisonment, with a restraining order preventing him from seeing his victim and the children except as agreed through legal representation.