THE former boyfriend of an Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member faces more than six months in prison after attacking her outside a Witney pub.

Dale Clack, of Stow Avenue, in Witney, admitted assaulting Louise Chapman at the Carpenters Arms in Newland on April 16.

The 43-year-old also tried to get Ms Chapman to drop the charges by intimidating her daughter.

Clack admitted charges of assault by beating, intimidating a witness and criminal damage when he appeared at Banbury Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Mohammed Sheikh, prosecuting, told the court that Clack picked up Ms Chapman in a fireman’s lift and carried her from a smoking area next to the pub.

Mr Sheikh added that Clack told her: “I will kill you... you are dead.”

Ms Chapman, who is the county council’s cabinet member for children, young people and families and is also vice-chairman of West Oxfordshire District Council, was able to get away from Clack when people came out of the pub to help her. Clack then drove off.

At about 6.15pm, Ms Chapman returned home and found the bathroom door was damaged, Mr Sheikh said.

He added: “It looked like a fist had been punched through.”

Clack was arrested and released on police bail the following day, on condition that he should not try to contact Ms Chapman.

But Clack sent a series of text messages to Ms Chapman’s 23-year-old daughter, Holly, asking her to get her mother to drop the charges.

On April 18, Clack visited Holly at Kodak Express, in the Woolgate Centre, Witney, where she work-ed.

The court was told Clack said: “Your mum needs to drop the charges, otherwise things will get messy.”

Mr Sheikh said Holly was “intimidated and frightened”, because she was alone in the shop.

He threatened to “expose Ms Chapman to the press”.

Clack had previously been cautioned for domestic violence, magistrates were told.

Shirley Selby, defending, said: “(Clack) is somebody, as a result of maybe his youth, who finds it difficult to let go when perhaps it is time to let go.

“Sometimes people are good at walking away from relationships, sometimes not. I would say Mr Clack falls into the latter.”

Ms Selby said Clack’s father had been abusive to his mother, which included physical violence.

She added that Clack had entered guilty pleas at the earliest possible moment and felt remorse for his actions.

Magistrates decided they could not sentence Clack and remanded him in custody to appear at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, May 23.

Magistrates do not have the power to imprison someone for more than six months.