A FATHER barged a police officer during a domestic incident.

Police were called to the home of Lee Gilmartin in Worthing.

There were fears for someone causing criminal damage at the property.

When Gilmartin arrived home he ignored instructions to stay away, bounding up the stairs.

He shoved an officer into the wall and the officer suffered a sprained hip, Hove Crown Court heard.

Gilmartin admitted assaulting a police officer and was ordered to complete 45 hours of unpaid work.

Harry MacDonald, prosecuting, said the incident happened on November 19 last year.

He said Gilmartin “shoulder barged” the police officer out of the way.

Gilmartin was acting in a “volatile manner, screaming and shouting”.

In the end officers had to use spray to stop him and get him to calm down.

Daniel Frier, defending, said Gilmartin is a “family man, through and through”, looking after his two young daughters as a single parent, with an older adult daughter also at home.

At the time of the incident, his own parents were in ailing health, and his father died shortly after the incident.

Mr Frier said there have been fears over one of Gilmartin’s daughters, including fears about her being linked to modern slavery after falling in with the wrong crowd.

He said Gilmartin, of Hill Barn Lane, Broadwater, was “extremely concerned” about her, but was remorseful of hurting the officer.

Judge Anne Arnold ordered Gilmartin to complete unpaid work and to do 20 rehabilitation sessions at the hearing on January 4.