TEENAGER Niall Hanbury picked up a pint glass and hit another man over the head with it in a pub, a court heard.

Moments earlier, Hanbury and the victim in the case had been grappling on the floor and exchanging blows on the floor of the Royal Oak Pub, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucester Crown Court was told.

Judge William Hart sentenced Hanbury, of Mount Pleasant, Wotton-under-Edge, to 32 weeks' detention but suspended the term for 18 months.

Prosecutor Sam Jones said the incident related to a Saturday night on July 12 last year at the pub and the defendant had been drinking there during the afternoon.

At 9.30pm, he came to blows with Adam Eldridge and witnesses saw Hanbury brandishing a snooker cue then grappling with Eldridge on the floor.

People in the pub separated them and Hanbury was ejected, said Mr Jones.

Moments later, Hanbury came back into the pub, picked up a pint glass and hit Mr Eldridge from behind, said Mr Jones.

The glass smashed and left a one inch cut on the back of his head, the court heard.

Mr Eldridge was cautioned for common assault relating to the earlier incident, the court heard.

Hanbury was interviewed some time later and said he could not recollect events, said Mr Jones.

The barrister said Hanbury was 17 at the time of the offence but 18 when he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm on April 8.

Jason Coulter, mitigating, said his early guilty plea was Hanbury's best mitigation.

"He still to this day has little recollection of events of that night," he said, adding that he genuinely felt remorse.

Hanbury, he said, had anger management difficulties, and when drunk and provoked, he became an "angry young man".

Judge Hart said he hoped Hanbury realised that what he had done that night was "very cowardly".

He said: "You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.The injury you caused, as luck would have it, was a minor injury."

The judge said the teenager was someone who clearly had problems controlling his temper and as well as the suspended sentence ordered that he complete 30 sessions on an aggression replacement therapy programme.

He also ordered that he do 80 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months.