A father who tried to set dogs on his ex-girlfriend’s family after breaking down their front door has walked free from court.

David Holmes, 29, took a gang of friends to the house in Buttercup Square, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, in February, before kicking down the door and threatening the family inside.

Holmes, of Arnold's Way, Cumnor, said he wanted to find his ex-girlfriend Kirsty Bradbury to arrange to see his daughter Kayla, then aged two.

At Oxford Crown Court he was handed a suspended jail sentence and given a restraining order banning him from contacting Miss Bradbury and three other members of her family.

Graham Bennett, defending, said: “There were several people arriving at the house who were together responsible for the threat of force, and dogs were present.

“It was a show of force.

“Those present must have been extremely frightened by what was going on.

“Fortunately, the evidence shows no serious physical injury.

“Plainly there would have been some trauma caused by the invasion of the home.”

Mr Bennett said Holmes had not seen his daughter since summer 2007 and had been desperate to see her.

He said: “The defendant went about dealing with these problems in an entirely improper, immature and criminal way.

“He accepts he should never have behaved in that manner and regrets it bitterly.”

Holmes was warned he faced jail after being convicted of two charges of harassment and one of affray after a trial last month. He was cleared of three charges of putting a person in fear of violence and one of having an offensive weapon.

Jonathan Coode, prosecuting, said Holmes and his friends had taken two or three dogs to the house and ordered them to attack, but they did not.

Sentencing Holmes to 12-months’ jail, suspended for two years, Mr Justice Bean said: “After your relationship with Kirsty Bradbury broke down, you harassed her by sending her threatening and abusive text messages, and leaving some phone messages of a similar kind.

”Then in February you organised an affray in which you went mob-handed with several other people and two dogs to the home of Kirsty Bradbury’s brother, forced your way in and caused considerable alarm and distress.”

Holmes was also given a two-year supervision order, told to attend a community domestic violence programme, and given a restraining order.