A WOMAN and her two young daughters fled their home in terror after her drunken partner punched her in the face and grabbed a kitchen knife, a court heard.

Nicholas Sykes had been drinking and inhaling butane gas when he returned to the home he shared with his partner of six months, Rebecca Owen, in the early hours of October 31.

But Bolton Crown Court heard how he flew into a temper when she told him he had to sleep on the sofa, shoulder barging her into the wall on the stairway and calling her names before punching her twice.

"She felt her nose explode with blood," said Lindsay Thomas, prosecuting.

Due to the disturbance Miss Owen's daughters, aged 12 and nine, woke up and rang the police.

When Sykes saw Miss Owen with the phone, he went to the kitchen and got a knife from a knife block.

"Miss Owen said she thought he was going to kill them," said Mrs Thomas.

The woman and her daughter ran outside and Sykes followed, telling a neighbour who appeared to " get back inside".

Miss Owen's 45-minute ordeal ended when police offciers arrived in the street and 27-year-old Sykes dropped the knife and ran off.

Sykes, of Anchor Lane, Farnworth, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm, possessing a knife and affray.

Mark Ferguson, defending said: "He recognises that what he did was nothing short of appalling. It was, no doubt, a terrifying ordeal for Miss Owen and her children."

He added that Sykes is remorseful and apologetic.

Sentencing Sykes to 20 months in jail, Judge Peter Davies told him: "This was a disgraceful episode - cowardly actually."