A MAN has appeared in the dock for assaulting a woman during the coronavirus lockdown.

Jamie Daniel O'Neill, aged 34 and of Diana Way, Corfe Mullen, assaulted a woman by beating her in Wimborne on March 30 – a week after prime minister Boris Johnson introduced lockdown measures across the country.

O'Neill admitted the offence when he appeared at Poole Magistrates' Court on Monday, July 6.

The bench handed him him a conditional discharge for 18 months and ordered him to pay £100 compensation, a £21 surcharge and £85 costs.