A MAN who threw ‘scaldingly hot’ lasagna over a woman has been put on probation.

The couple heard that the couple’s four-year “dysfunctional” relationship came to a violent end last Bonfire Night in the house they shared at Near Sawrey.

Philip Drew, 54, who has moved to Blackpool, pleaded guilty, at Carlisle Crown Court, to common assaults on Lake District cafe owner Tracey Fielding, and on her son Daniel, 26, and daughter, Alexandra, 22.

He was put on probation supervision for two years, and made to attend a domestic violence programme. He was also banned indefinitely from having any contact with Ms Fielding, her son, or her daughter, except to settle any disputes through a solicitor.

Prosecuting counsel Greg Hoare told the court the incident happened after the family had gone to a public bonfire party at Hawkshead.

They got there too late to see the fireworks display, so – after finding Hawkshead’s pubs too busy – stopped off at the Tower Bank Arms, near their home in Near Sawrey, instead.

The court heard that Drew was annoyed when the three others went home without him so, when he arrived home was “in something of a mood and rather displeased,” said Mr Hoare.

Mr Hoare told the jury that Drew then grabbed the “scaldingly-hot lasagne” that his partner had been heating in the microwave, and threw it across the kitchen.

It hit Ms Fielding and burst on impact, burning her with the lasagne as it sprayed out of the container, the court heard.

Drew then “ran amok” in the kitchen, throwing down the microwave, overturning the kitchen table, and hurling the television and ornaments around the room, Mr Hoare said.

Daniel Fielding and his sister tried, and failed, to calm him down, and both suffered minor injuries in the process.

Ms Fielding then picked up a bottle of wine and hit him with it over the head “to stop him”, Mr Hoare said.

Drew needed emergency surgery after two depressed fractures of his skull left him with bleeding on the brain.

Police took no action against Ms Fielding because she told them she had been acting in self-defence, the court was told.

When he was arrested on leaving hospital, Mr Hoare said, Drew claimed that, far from being the attacker, he was the victim, and that his partner and her children had attacked him “like a pack of wolves”.

In mitigation, defence barrister Dominic d’Souza said the incident was just the final example of the violence that had marked the couple’s “damaged and poisonous relationship”.

“Theirs was a dysfunctional relationship,” he said. “They were both vulnerable to each other on occasions.”

Mr d’Souza said that though Drew had a conviction for assaulting a previous partner, the case should not be treated as a typical example of domestic violence.