Police documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court on Monday said the man’s partner had left their two children in the care of a neighbour on the morning of January 13 while she went to the shops to buy groceries.

It is alleged the man turned up at the unit block a short time later looking for his partner and flew into a fit of rage when he was told she’d gone out and left the children with the neighbour.

The neighbour later told police the man was irrational and aggressive and appeared under the influence of drugs or alcohol, prompting her to lock her back door and refuse his demands to come inside to see his children.

The man allegedly repeatedly kicked the door in a bid to get inside, causing extensive damage to it.

It is alleged he then went to the front of the unit where, “in a raged state” he picked up an inflatable swimming pool and tore it apart as he threw it around.

He then picked up multiple pot-plants and threw them at the neighbour’s front window, causing them to smash against the metal security screens and spray soil all over the window sil.

The victim contacted police, who found the man inside his partner’s unit when they arrived.

The man was arrested and charged with intimidation and property damage.

Court documents said the man stripped down naked while in the police holding cells and refused to wear shorts provided to him by Corrective Services, although he was fully dressed in prison-issued greens when he fronted court on Monday, a week after his arrest.

Magistrate Robert Walker questioned the man’s mental health in light of his behaviour in the cells, however the man explained he had taken his clothes off because he had “soiled” himself.

He denied he had been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time.

Magistrate Walker granted the man strict conditional bail to report to police daily and live out of the area at an address on the Mid-North Coast.

The case returns to court in February.