A MAN who helps care for his autistic brother has been jailed for 14 months for wounding another man in the leg.

Charles Robert Walker, 21, hit another man with a tool he picked up in his van during an argument when he was on a suspended prison sentence for three other assaults, Nick Adlington, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

But defence barrister Kirstie Watson told the court that Walker's friends and well-wishers described him as a polite, effervescent and reliable person.

Recorder Peter Makepeace told Walker: "You need to decide whether you are the person your friends believe you are or whether you are the person who presents himself in court and to the people you have assaulted."

He warned Walker that if he continued to be violent, he would spend longer periods behind bars.

He jailed him for 12 months for the new assault plus two months from the 20-week prison sentence imposed and suspended by York magistrates for three assaults committed on December 2, 2012, and May 20, 2012.

Walker, of Howden Lane, Crockey Hill, near York, admitted wounding.

Mr Adlington said the victim had been drinking and was aggressive when he went to a flat in the early hours of November 24, 2013.

He was refused entrance, and Walker, who was inside with other people, and who had also been drinking, went out to speak to him.

The two had a discussion in Walker's van, where Walker picked up an implement before the two got out and Walker recklessly used the tool on the victim's leg, causing a wound three or four cm long and which the victim thought had hit his hip bone, the court heard. An X-ray later showed it had not penetrated the bone.

For Walker, Ms Watson said: "He is a young man who has much to give."

There were two sides to him, she said - the man who committed the offences, and the man who worked 15 or 16 hours a week caring for his autistic brother and of whom his friends spoke highly.

She told the court that if he went to prison, members of his family would inevitably suffer as his brother, although living independently, needed 24-hour care and relied heavily on Walker.