A 38-year-old man ended up with a plate of curry over his head during a row with his estranged wife.

Hyndburn magistrates heard that Karl Dewhurst responded by pushing his wife to the floor and repeatedly punched her, ignoring pleas from one of their children to stop.

She later told police she had knocked the curry over him because she thought he was going to throw it at her, but Dewhurst claimed she had deliberately tipped it over his head.

Dewhurst, of Lynthorpe Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to assaulting Kim McQuarry and using racially aggravated threatening behaviour towards one of the police officers who arrested him. He was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Philippa White, prosecuting, said the couple had lived separate lives but under the same roof for the last two and a half years. "She slept upstairs and he slept downstairs," she said.

Graham Parkinson, defending, said: "She got hold of the curry and poured it over his head and it went in his eyes and everywhere. He accepts that at that point he lost his temper."