A MAN has avoided an immediate prison term for a “sustained attack” on a woman in Bournemouth.

Zacharius Zoltan Nelson Bastable was alleged to have assaulted the complainant thereby occasioning her actual bodily harm between November 11 and November 14 last year.

The 34-year-old was also charged with damaging the contents of a bag, make-up powder and a pot of gemstones, belonging to the same woman over the same dates.

Bastable, whose address was given as Chaldecott Gardens, Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to both offences at a Poole Magistrates’ Court hearing last month.

Appearing in the dock at the same court on March 21, the defendant was committed to prison for 24 weeks, suspended for two years.

Court papers state the bench considered the offence was serious and warranted a custodial term as it was a “sustained attack causing significant injury in a domestic context”.

The suspended sentence included a requirement to abstain from consuming alcohol for 90 days, to take part in a 42-day Building Better Relationships programme and complete up to 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

Bastable was also issued with a three-year restraining order and ordered to pay £128 surcharge and £85 costs.

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