A woman broke her wrist when a former lover shoved her to the ground outside the Casbah nightclub.

The 28-year-old had kicked out at Joel Lester’s car door. The man got out the vehicle and pushed her violently, sending the woman tumbling to the ground.

Swindon Crown Court heard the woman, who in the past had had a brief fling with 26-year-old Lester, had put out her arm to try and stop her fall. She badly broke her left wrist and surgeons had to fix a metal plate in order to mend the fracture.

Prosecutor Tessa Hingston said the woman had gone out in town on the evening of March 8 last year to celebrate a birthday. It was the first time the mum-of-three had been out since Christmas.

In the early hours of March 9 she left the Casbah nightclub on John Street to speak to a friend. She saw Lester sitting in a car parked nearby and went over to speak to him.

There was ill feeling between the two of them. Ms Hingston said: “He says she was complaining about the way he had treated her."

After she kicked the driver’s side door of the car he was in he got out the vehicle and shoved her to the ground. She was treated for the broken wrist at the Great Western Hospital.

Lester has six convictions for nine offences. The incident happened just six days before he was due before the crown court to enter his pleas to a grievous bodily harm charge relating to horseplay that had gone badly wrong and his victim broke his back.

Defending, Emma Handslip said her client had matured significantly since he was given a suspended jail sentence last year for GBH.

He had been ordered by the judge to complete a thinking skills programme but, due to problems with the probation service, he had not been put on the course. He had instead completed a course intended to help him handle his emotions. “He is being proactive and that is not the person I used to represent,” his lawyer said.

Ms Handslip told the court her client looked after his three-year-old daughter while his former partner worked. His mother would struggle to take over childcare responsibilities if he were sent to prison.

Appearing before Swindon Crown Court in person, Lester, of Hinton Parva, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

Judge Jason Taylor QC spared him an immediate jail term, saying the man had a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

Sentencing Lester to 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years, the judge said: “For reasons that are not entirely clear but almost certainly relate to a previous albeit short-lived relationship, you said something to the victim that annoyed her and she approached the car and kicked it.

"You got out and pushed her violently and forcefully causing her to fall to the floor. Her description was that you flew out of the car and just went for her.”

He must complete 250 hours of unpaid work, 20 rehabilitation days and the thinking skills programme with the probation service.