A MAN who repeatedly kicked his girlfriend in the head has been given a community penalty.

Thomas Noble, of Alice Smith Square, Littlemore, Oxford, was spared jail despite committing the crime two months after being handed a suspended sentence.

The 20-year-old was convicted of assault by beating and using threatening, insulting or abusive words or behaviour at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on January 25.

He was arrested on September 2 last year after a row with his girlfriend Johanna Beerman, the mother of his 20-month-old son, in Bonn Square, Oxford.

Tim Boswell, prosecuting, said Noble told his drunk girlfriend to get up off the ground and when she didn’t he kicked her “four or five times” in the head.

He said Noble, who has received 27 convictions for 70 offences since 2002, then abused members of the public who tried to intervene.

Claire Fraser, defending, said Miss Beerman had now been reconciled with the defendant and had written to the court to support him.

On January 23 last year Nobel committed an assault with intent to rob and received a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Gordon Risius yesterday handed him a two-year community order with two years supervision and a 90-day rehabilitation course.

He said Noble wouldn’t be shown any mercy next time he appeared before the court.