A DRUNKEN window cleaner, who kicked in the door of an elderly woman after mistaking it for his partner’s house, has avoided jail.

Thomas McAvoy went on a drunken rampage, booting and banging on the door of a deaf 84-year-old woman in Hyslop Road, Saltcoats, in the early hours of the morning, trying to find his girlfriend.

The 42-year-old appeared in the dock at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week and admitted he was “ashamed” of his behaviour.

The court heard McAvoy, of Glencairn Street in Saltcoats, arrived at the home of the pensioner just after 2am on June 10 this year and began violently kicking the door in.

He eventually realised he had the wrong address telling neighbours “I’ve got the wrong house” before fleeing.

Police were called and found McAvoy had dropped medicine with his name on it, leading officers straight to him.

The fiscal told the court: “At about 2.10am neighbours heard a loud banging noise and say Mr McAvoy, who was wearing quite distinctive pink shorts, was banging and kicking the door and shouting ‘Danielle’.

“Police found medicine in the garden which helped with the identification of the accused.”

The court heard McAvoy then headed to his partner’s address and continued his violent rampage there, kicking the door and eventually getting in through the back of the house and waking up the two young children who were in bed.

The fiscal told the court McAvoy’s partner “Told the police that she was very scared and said, ‘when the door went through the kids and I were screaming’.

“She lifted a baseball bat and he challenged her to hit him with it but she didn’t.”

Defending McAvoy, Graeme Cunningham said his client made a mistake and was remorseful and he and his partner were keen to get back together.

He said: “It was not a break-in, it was a case of a very drunk man going to the wrong house.

“He is a man of 42 years of age and is no stranger to the court. There are significant sentences of imprisonment on his record. However there is quite a long period of time where there is no offending.

“There’s been difficulties with alcohol and further back in time, with drugs.

“His partner is quite anxious to recommence the relationship.”

Sheriff Iona McDonald told McAvoy he was lucky the elderly victim didn’t hear any of the commotion, saying: “It’s very fortunate that she is deaf. If she had heard and saw this she would have been absolutely terrified. Imagine that was your mother, you would have wanted to kill the man who done that.”

McAvoy, who had been remanded in custody since the incident, replied: “Absolutely. I’m so ashamed of that.”

He was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, two years supervision, £120 compensation and ordered to complete a rehabilitation scheme for domestic abusers.