A man has been jailed after using a tennis racquet to knock his girlfriend to the floor and threatening a lifeguard on Tenby’s North Beach this week.

Lee Scott Sarsero, of Merlins Crescent, Swansea, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating Kara Short and a charge of using threatening and abusive words or behaviour, causing two witnesses to fear unlawful violence could be used against them, when he appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Friday.

Magistrates heard that families watched on in horror as the holidaymaker knocked his girlfriend to the floor with a tennis racquet on one of the county’s busiest beaches on Wednesday (August 23).

A lifeguard and a passer-by witnessed Sarsero arguing with his girlfriend at the water’s edge at North Beach, and the police were called.

The court heard that Sarsero started to move towards lifeguard Ashley Griffiths, shouting at him, and then as Mr Griffiths backed away, started running after him. Mr Griffiths “kicked off his flip-flops” and ran across the beach, through families and holidaymakers, followed by Sarsero.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones said: “Mr Griffiths could see the looks on the family’s faces, they were looking on in disgust at what was happening.

“These are serious offences that were committed in Tenby; a holiday resort with lots of children and families present. They occurred at 4pm in the afternoon, the beach was packed with children and parents,” said Mr Pritchard-Jones.

He told magistrates that the argument continued at the top of the “zig-zag steps” leading from the beach and two lifeguards who had come from South Beach to assist their colleagues witnessed Sarsero strike Miss Short “to the side of the head and shoulders with significant force to cause her to fall to the ground”.

Mr Pritchard-Jones said that Miss Short had not supported the prosecution and had told police she had not been assaulted but it was “clear for eye witnesses that she had”.

Defence solicitor Stacey Holmes said Sarsero had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and expressed remorse for his actions.

“He admits they had both had a bit to drink but were not heavily intoxicated as he had been reducing the amount he drinks on a voluntary basis. He was trying to diffuse the situation and wanted to return home without anything escalating.

“He accepts he was wrong and should not have hit the victim,” she told magistrates.

She added that he since his release from prison in July, for a breach of a post sentence supervision order, he was attempting to “reform his character” and had enlisted the help of his niece to “keep him on the straight and narrow”.

Magistrates told Sarsero he had an “unenviable record” having been in and out of prison in recent years. They sentenced him to 16 weeks in prison, to run concurrently, for both offences.

He was also fined £115, ordered to pay £85 court costs and £50 compensation to Ashley Griffiths.