A FUGITIVE escaped from police after ‘trapping’ them in his own living room and making his getaway on a "pushbike".

John Newcombe fled from the officers after they were called to answer a domestic violence emergency in Ferndale Close in the Rassau area of Ebbw Vale.

Prosecutor Eugene Egan told Cardiff Crown Court: “The police received a 999 call from the defendant’s father to say how he had assaulted his own mother.”

He added that after they arrived to arrest Newcombe he had asked them if he could put some different clothes on before being taken into custody.

Mr Egan said: “He asked to change his shirt before he ran from the living room and slammed the door behind him.

“As there was no door handle, it wasn’t easy to open and they had to prise it open. The defendant managed to escape on a pushbike.”

Judge Christopher Vosper QC heard how the area was searched to no avail to find Newcombe before he handed himself in at Ebbw Vale police station the next day.

The defendant pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody on August 26 last year.

The court was told that he had told officers in his police interview that he had “panicked and run away”.

Mr Egan said Newcombe had a “limited antecedent history”.

A Probation Service report into the defendant stated that he was “suitable for unpaid work”.

Judge Vosper said: “This is an offence of escape at the lowest end of the scale.

“No violence was used against the officers and it wasn’t an escape from court or prison.

“I accept that you simply panicked and ran.”

The judge jailed Newcombe for eight weeks, suspended for 12 months, telling him: “I see no point in seeing you have to serve that sentence.”

He must also carry out 100 hours of unpaid work within the next year and pay a surcharge.

Newcombe, who represented himself, told the judge he was sorry for committing the offence.