A man has been released from prison and ordered to stay out of Newtown and Rhayader while he waits to be sentenced for assaulting his partner during a drug-fuelled argument.

Stephen Evans, aged 43, pleaded guilty to cutting his then-partner by squeezing her hand during a scuffle over a pouch of tobacco at their home in Newtown on July 23.

Evans was granted conditional bail to return to court for sentencing on August 22 after spending more than a week in prison on remand for a more serious charge of making threats to kill that was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service on Tuesday, August 1.

Evans must not enter or stop in Newtown or Rhayader except for travelling through the towns for work purposes.

Welshpool Magistrates' Court heard that the "on and off" relationship ended last month after police were called about Evans' behaviour during a weekend of drinking and taking cocaine.

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Prosecutor Helen Tench said the situation had escalated with Evans being abusive and throwing insults before a scuffle broke out between the pair about a pouch of tobacco.

The court was told that Evans had already served 36 weeks in prison for assaulting his partner who later requested that a restraining order against him would be withdrawn after they rekindled the relationship.

Robert Hanratty, mitigating, said Evans accepted that the relationship was "toxic" which the court heard involved police on 14 occasions during the past three years.

Mr Hanratty said: "Let’s keep this in perspective, this arises from a disagreement over several hours. Mrs Davies grabbed Stephen’s tobacco and he tried to grab it back by squeezing her hand.

"The defendant denies threats to kill. It’s a weak case. It’s a comment he supposedly made ‘if you don’t get out, I’ll kill you’. He puts a knife in a spa pool which is a spiteful thing to do but there was no suggestion he was threatening someone with a knife. It was a feature of a rather unfortunate day, falling out with each other throughout the day.

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"He’s a hard-working young man. He’s wrestled and controlled his demons - his mental health issues - and he accepts his relationship is over.

"He stands to be sentenced but the court would be hard-pressed to give him a custodial sentence over squeezing her hand. It was a foolish thing to do, he was drinking during the day."

Chair of the magistrates’ bench Nerys Jones told Evans, formerly of Lon Gwern, Newtown that after listening carefully to the case, they decided that he would be granted bail to return to court for sentencing.