A MAN has been cleared of breaking his ex-partner’s elbow during a real-life kitchen sink drama.

Julian Stevens was found not guilty after a jury decided Sophia Gubbins slipped on water from a washing up bowl she threw on the floor during a row over domestic chores.

He told Exeter Crown Court he had not pushed her but that she had slipped on the wet floor and injured herself accidentally at their home in Okehampton.

She told the court that he lost his temper, punched a hole in the kitchen door and then shoved her so violently that she fell and broke her right elbow.

The jury have been played a recording of the 999 call she made to police after she locked herself in the bathroom after the alleged attack on May 18 this year.

Roofer Julian Stevens, aged 27, of Wellington Road, Exeter, denied and was acquitted of causing actual bodily harm to 29-year-old mother-of-two Sophia Gubbins.

He admitted damaging a coffee table and the kitchen door at the house in Okehampton and was fined £200 with £85 costs by Judge Timothy Rose.

During a two day trial Miss Kelly Scrivener, prosecuting, said the couple had been together for two years and had a young child. There had been arguments in the past but no violence.

She said on the night of the assault they bickered about domestic chores and ended up in the kitchen where Ms Gubbins was washing up the child’s feeding bottles.

She had already asked him to leave and go elsewhere for the night but he had refused and carried on arguing.

Miss Scrivener said: ‘He approached her and got very close and in her face. She asked him to move away several times. He did not calm down. Perhaps unwisely, she picked up the washing-up bowl and threw it towards his feet.

‘Some of the contents spilled out onto the floor. It did not calm the situation and he continued to shout. She says she attempted to leave the kitchen and get away from him.

‘He carried on with his frustration by punching the kitchen door. He turned towards her and pushed her very hard just below the shoulder. The force led to her slipping on the wet floor and breaking her elbow as she landed.

‘We do not say he intended to cause the injury but that he did so and that is why he is charged with causing actual bodily harm.’

Stevens had left by the time the police arrived but they found damage to the kitchen door and a glass table in the living room, which had been smashed.

Stevens denied pushing her. He told the jury she had slipped on the wet floor and he had helped her to get up. He said he had never harmed her and had left the house when she asked him to.

The couple broke up after the incident and have not got back together since.