A 40-year-old Douglas man has admitted punching his girlfriend and being a passenger in a stolen car.

Simon David Lomax was seen by a witness hitting the woman in the street.

She did not want to make a complaint but the case is proceeding on the eyewitness account.

Lomax pleaded guilty to common assault on a female and knowingly being a passenger in a vehicle taken without consent.

He had already previously pleaded guilty to a common assault during which he and another male attacked a 14-year-old boy.

Magistrates adjourned sentencing for all matters until April 21 to allow time for a probation report to be prepared.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that a witness saw Lomax walking on Demesne Road with his girlfriend on March 6.

He was walking in the middle of the road and she was telling him to get off the road.

Lomax was then said to have punched her on the left side of her face, but fortunately no injury was caused.

The woman did not want to make a formal complaint and was in court to support Lomax, but Mr Swain said that the case was proceeding based on the witness account.

We previously reported that, on August 14 last year, Lomax and 27-year-old Craig Jack Anderson, of Demesne Road, Douglas, attacked a 14-year-old boy on Sydney Street in Douglas.

Anderson was said to have body-charged the boy causing him to drop his phone, then threw multiple punches at him.

Lomax, who lives at Demesne Road, was also said to have body-charged the teenager, but then to have come off worse when the boy pushed Lomax to the ground.

Anderson was jailed at the Court of General Gaol Delivery in December for the assault as well as other separate offences.

On August 25, Lomax was a passenger in a stolen vehicle.

We reported last week that Christopher James Christian, aged 36, of Sumark Croft, Douglas, was put on probation for 18 months after he was stopped by a have-a-go hero whose car he had stolen.

Lomax was a passenger in that car and managed to escape but was identified later.

Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge asked for bail to be granted saying that Lomax’s partner was in court.

Ms Dodge said that Lomax had spent four days on remand since the assault on her and by the time a probation report was prepared he would have served a further six weeks in custody if he was held on remand.

The advocate said that her client had been on bail since August without any breaches.

Magistrates ordered that the probation report consider all sentencing options, including custody.

Bail was granted in the sum of £500 with conditions to live at his home address, to contact probation, and to obey a curfew between 8pm and 8am.