A 23-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed after he attacked a pub landlord in a Worcestershire town.

Adam Oliver was followed by landlord Andrew Gooding after he left the Black Star pub in Stourport-on-Severn on November 2 last year, a few weeks after it had been refurbished and reopened.

Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court Mr Gooding believed Oliver had urinated in the wrong place in the gent's toilets and created a mess. An off-duty community police support officer out walking his dog saw Oliver knock Mr Gooding to the floor and kick him around the head and upper body. He walked away and then went back and kicked him again.

Mr Gooding, who did not make a formal complaint, suffered a cut above his eye, Mr Whitfield said.

Oliver, of High Street, Stourport, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm and also admitted a separate charge of intimidating a witness.

Mr Whitfield told the court Oliver had seen a woman in another pub in Stourport who was the main witness against him in another assault case which was set to go for trial. She was frightened when he approached and spoke to her but Oliver later changed his plea to guilty so the intimidation had no effect, the court heard.

Barry Newton, defending, said Oliver claimed he had been hit on the back of the head and knocked to the floor and only assaulted Mr Gooding when he got back to his feet. He said Oliver's family was also in the licensed trade and his offending stemmed from the fact that he drank too much but since being in prison in remand he had been taking a number of courses with a view to getting a catering job.

Recorder Andrew Mainds told Oliver he should know that assaulting a pub landlord was taken seriously especially as his family was in the trade. He said Oliver had been before the courts on an increasing number of occasions.

"Keep up the good work in prison, don't make any friends, get out of the place and go back to your family and get a proper job," he told Oliver.

He was jailed for 10 months for intimidation and six months for the assault to run consecutively, making a total of 16 months minus the time he has spent in custody in remand and a qualifying period on an electronically tagged curfew.