A JEALOUS man who assaulted his ex-partner and her new boyfriend in their Tetbury home was jailed for four months - but because he'd been in custody for six months on remand, he walked free from court.

Dragios Badea, 28 and originally from Romania, had effectively already served the sentence he was given at Gloucester Crown Court yesterday.

Badea, of Sheaveshill Parade, London, had denied assaulting ex partner Simona Popescu and common assault on her new boyfriend Bogdan Gligor in Tetbury on October 27 last year.

But after a two day trial the jury convicted him of both charges and Judge Jamie Tabor QC passed a sentence of two months consecutively on each charge.

He made a restraining order requiring Badea not to contact Ms Popescu in any way - and he ordered that Badea can only have contact with their daughter via the Family Court.

Badea had also denied charges of having a knife in public in Tetbury and assaulting an eight year old girl in Tetbury two days earlier, on October 25, last year. He was cleared of both those charges by the jury.

At the start of the trial prosecutor Virginia Cornwall said Badea and Ms Popescu had lived together in Romania but she left him and came to the UK to get away from him in 2015.

Later, however, he also moved to the UK and on October 25 arrived at her flat, the prosecutor said.

He went to a park in Tetbury with Ms Popescu but then pulled out a knife, threatened to kill himself, Ms Popescu and an eight-year-old girl at the scene and put the weapon to the girl's throat, it was alleged.

Two days later he went to Ms Popescu's home and there was a confrontation between him and her new partner, Mr Gligor.

Ms Cornwall told the court: "He was shouting at Bogdan to leave. He was making proprietorial comments like 'she is my partner, she is mine.'

"He was saying effectively that she was his property. He was clearly in a rage. Bogdan saw sense and left. He called the police.

"This left the defendant alone in the flat with Simona. He punched her on the jaw after pushing her on the bed.

"He told her he was going to get a knife and they were both going to die. He fetched a small kitchen knife and waved it around but then held it against his own throat, rubbing it across his neck. Then, dramatically, he stabbed himself a couple of times, superficially.

"Simona managed to call call the police, who arrived quickly and arrested him. They took photographs of Simona. She had minor injuries to her hand and a mark to her face.

"The defendant was interviewed. He denied any wrongdoing. He said that Simona was his wife and he wanted her back. He said he was there to tell her he was going to forgive her for her transgressions and that if she did not leave Bogdan he would kill himself.

"He said any injury she suffered was when she fell on the stairs. He did not except threatening to harm or kill her or anyone else. He said he was the only person he wanted to harm. "

The jury cleared Badea of the knife charge and the first alleged assault on the girl on October 25 but convicted him of assaulting Ms Popescu and Mr Gligor.

Judge Tabor said it had been a sad case but even if Badea had been found guilty of the most serious charge - involving the knife - the sentence would have been only about 12 months and he would still have been released very soon because of time served on remand.

A conviction on the knife charge would also have resulted in Badea's automatic deportation, he added.