A MAN who spat in a two-day-old baby’s face and threatened to throw him off a balcony was jailed for six months.

Homeless Sean Bowers, 25, went to the Shoebury flat of the child’s single mother, Southend magistrates heard.

The mum, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told via a video link how she let Bowers in, even though there was a restraining order, to stop him “getting angry”.

The woman, in her twenties, said: “He was on the sofa and my baby began crying. He said ‘don’t think you are going to be picking that brat up’.

“My baby cried some more and he said if I did not stop it wingeing, he would throw it over the balcony.

“My baby was in a car seat on the floor and he lent forward and spat at my boy. It went on his cheek.”

She said Bowers asked her to make him food, and, fearing he could get violent, she went to the kitchen, then out the front door to get help from a neighbour. When they returned five minutes later, Bowers had left through a bedroom window. Bowers, formerly of Westborough Road, Westcliff, admitted breaching the restraining order by going to the flat on July 10.

He denied assaulting the baby, spitting or threatening to throw him from the second-floor balcony, but was convicted of assault by beating.

The court heard the restraining order was imposed in May, 2012, and Bowers had been found guilty of two earlier breaches.

It also heard he assaulted the woman on May 1, 2012, by punching her in the head, arms and legs and also spat at her. He also had a conviction for assaulting and spitting at his sister on October 5.

Bowers claimed the woman invited him to the flat, through Facebook, and she did not want him to leave and attacked him with a broom.

He said he pushed her in self defence, then spat towards her, but it missed.