A DRINK-FUELLED dad grabbed his partner by the throat and threatened to throw their nine-month-old baby out of the window during a violent domestic dispute, a court heard.

Brendan Anderson, 36, told his girlfriend he would kill her if she didn’t leave the house when he confronted her about a suspected affair, Taunton Crown Court heard.

Anderson, of Bramble Park, Holway, Taunton, admitted ABH, child cruelty and producing cannabis, and was handed a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

Judge David Ticehurst blasted Anderson, who had been in prison since the attack on October 3, for his act of “gratuitous violence.”

He said: “It’s appalling behaviour, causing future distress to both child and mother.

“This richly deserves a prison sentence – you could have killed somebody that day.

“You were so drunk you wouldn’t have known you’d done it.

“This was gratuitous violence on a defenceless young baby.”

William Hunter, prosecuting, said Anderson, a self-employed builder, was in a “foul mood” when he returned home from an all-day drinking session at 6pm.

The court heard that he started to scream at the victim and tried to pull the baby from her arms, but spat in her face when she refused.

It was then that Anderson went on a violent rampage, grabbing his partner round the throat and pinning her against a wall, making her drowsy.

Mr Hunter said: “He said he wanted her to die. He said if she didn’t leave he’d kill her.”

When the police arrived 20 minutes later the bruised girlfriend was outside where she had been assaulted, and was found with a “tennis-ball sized” lump on her head.

Anderson refused to let the police in, and threatened to hurt the baby and throw it out of a window while pressing its face against the glass.

Police negotiators were called and the baby was unharmed in the drama.

Defending Anderson at the hearing last Wednesday, Patrick Mason said: “He has matured considerably and is a working man.

“He has no family now, and that’s of enormous regret and sorrow to him.

“He admits he lost the plot that night, and is ashamed and shocked by his own behaviour.

“He’s devastated by the fact that his dreadful behaviour has torn his family apart.”

Anderson was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £60.