A BAR manager was glassed as he struggled with a customer, York Crown Court heard.

Richard Peel was “rolling around on the ground” with a friend of James Paul Evans in BPM just after midnight on Sunday September 8, said David Garnett, for the Crown Prosecution Service. First one, then the other was on top.

Then Evans, 27, who was standing nearby, strode over and smashed a glass on Mr Peel’s head, before walking away towards some stairs “as if he had done nothing”.

Evans, who was off duty from his job in the kitchen of The Living Room at the time, and who lives in Lawrence Square, York, pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Peel.

He was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition that he does 200 hours’ unpaid work. He must also pay £750 compensation to Mr Peel.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, told Evans he had not been involved in the original trouble, adding: “The courts take a dim view of people who attack bar staff or door staff, who have a difficult enough job to do.”

Mr Garnett said Mr Peel and the customer continued to roll about for a time after the “glassing”, which left glass fragments on the floor. Mr Peel’s injuries included cuts to his forehead and thumb. The judge said Evans had to bear responsibility for any cuts made by glass fragments as his actions put them on the floor.

For Evans, Steven Grattage said he did not remember having a glass in his hand, but accepted that he had. He had acted out of character. He knew the customer on the floor through a friend of a friend and did not realise the type of man he was.

The court heard the customer was jailed two days after the incident for an unrelated matter.

Mr Grattage said the customer had invited Evans for a game of pool and after it finished they had gone into town.

He had acted “impulsively and recklessly” in hitting Mr Peel.