A soldier turned MoD contractor in Baghdad has been given a suspended prison sentence for an attack which led to a man suffering a broken skull.

Sean Wilson, 49, must also pay £12,000 compensation to the victim, after grabbing him by the throat and walking him backwards in the incident a year ago, Recorder Jo Kidd said.

The other man fell over, hitting his head on a stone floor with a "sickening thud".

As others in the North Yorkshire pub put him in the recovery position and called for an ambulance to rush him to hospital, Wilson walked out of the pub and away.

The judge told Wilson at York Crown Court: "I anticipate you think of yourself as a chivalrous man, a brave man, an honourable man.

"Your behaviour on September 8 last year was not chivalrous, it was not brave and it was not honourable. It was disgraceful.

"It was you, acting under the influence of alcohol, losing your temper and using your experience in the army and in your job to physically intimidate and bully him."

Nicholas Rooke, prosecuting, said the victim, a kitcher fitter and tiler, who had also been drinking, had been heard to make an offensive remark about Wilson's wife.

He was unconscious for three days with a broken skull and bleeding on the brain and was still suffering the mental and physical after effects a year later.

He had been off work for months, had lost his driving licence, which he needed to take his tools to work, and was suffering financially.

Wilson, of Whitby, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm on the day he was due to stand trial.

He was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to pay £12,000 compensation to the victim and £4,200 prosecution costs.

For him, Sarah Barlow handed in a sheaf of references including evidence of his "exemplary" 12 years' Army service and said that he apologised for the injury.

The judge said Wilson's actions had caused the victim to fall but he had not intended to harm the victim.