A FORMER Witney United manager has gone on trial accused of smashing a glass in his ex-partner’s face after an England game.

Darren Teggart, who used to play for Witney Town, is said to have lost his temper with Katrina Teggart during last year’s World Cup “against a history of domestic violence” towards her.

The 43-year-old, from Burwell Drive, Witney, denies one count of causing actual bodily harm.

Nikki Duncan, opening the case for the prosecution at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, said the pair had been married for 17 years and had a child together.

She said Mrs Teggart was in the iZi bar in Witney Market Place for the England against Algeria game on June 18, with her daughter from a previous relationship and friends.

Teggart was “already there, watching with friends and had already started drinking by the time she joined them,” Miss Duncan said.

Jurors heard the pair went their separate ways and Mrs Teggart invited friend Laura Sanders to stay over, leaving the defendant a note saying “you’ll have to sleep on the sofa”.

Miss Duncan said he came home in the early hours and went upstairs to Mrs Teggart’s bedroom, where she was drinking from a glass.Miss Duncan told the court: “He came in and started arguing with her. She didn’t see the blow coming and struck her on the side of the face with a slap, a punch or a push, and that blow caused the glass to smash into her face causing a wound to her face.”

Miss Duncan said the defendant left and Mrs Teggart’s daughter, who had heard the incident, called an ambulance.

The wound was stitched the next day, jurors heard.

After his arrest on June 19, Teggart answered “no comment” to police questions but handed over a prepared statement saying he had attempted to take the glass away from his ex-partner so he could talk to her. She dropped it and it smashed, causing the injury.

The trial, which is expected to conclude this week, continues.