DRUNKEN dad Timothy Grooms used his car as a battering ram to smash up his family home as his terrified children cowered behind a sofa. He repeatedly drove his Peugeot estate car into the property, causing almost £1,000 worth of damage to the front door,

DRUNKEN dad Timothy Grooms used his car as a battering ram to smash up his family home as his terrified children cowered behind a sofa.

He repeatedly drove his Peugeot estate car into the property, causing almost £1,000 worth of damage to the front door, a window, and structural brickwork.

And when police arrived on the scene, Grooms told officers he didn't care about the children or Christmas.

"This was domestic violence in the home, harm was clearly caused to his family," prosecutor Emma Dmitriev told Ely magistrates. "A police officer found three children huddled together.

"His partner told police she tried to get the children into the kitchen because she did not know what he would do next."

Appearing at Ely courthouse on Thursday, 42-year-old Grooms, of Thirlwall Drive, Fordham, admitted driving with an alcohol reading more than double the legal limit, causing criminal damage to the property belonging to Sanctuary Hereward, and being in breach of a conditional discharge imposed for an earlier offence of assaulting his partner.

Police were called to the house because Grooms and his partner had fallen out, and Grooms had driven the car at the side of the house, explained Mrs Dmitriev.

"A neighbour saw him reverse the car up the drive, and then do it again," she said. "The children were terrified by the goings on, and were found cowering behind the sofa"

Grooms had been drinking and could not remember the incident clearly, said solicitor Adam Haselhurst.

Grooms was given an interim driving ban and sentencing was adjourned until January 24.