A 47-YEAR-OLD Bradford man has received a suspended jail sentence for attacking a an “unprovoked and sustained attack” on a man in a pub toilet.

Richard Whitfield, of Silwood Drive, Eccleshill, was jailed for 12 months, suspended for two years for assault by beating causing actual bodily harm.

He attacked David Shoesmith in the men’s toilets at The Prince of Wales, Harrogate Road, Eccleshill. Whitfield believed Mr Shoesmith was spreading rumours about his girlfriend being unfaithful.

When Whitfield saw Mr Shoesmith “sniggering at him” on March 21 this year, he followed him into the toilets and attacked him, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Whitfield, who had drunk up to eight pints of lager that day, threw “two or three punches”. Mr Shoesmith fell to the floor, hitting his head on the toilet’s condom machine and was left by Whitfield bleeding on the floor.

Whitfield, who knew Mr Shoesmith, was also ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work in the community and placed on an electronically-monitored curfew between 9pm and 7am for the next 28 days.

Mr Shoesmith’s injuries included swelling to the left-hand side of his face and a cut to his left eyebrow that required three stitches.

Judge John Potter told Whitfield: “It was a sustained assault and committed while in drink.

He added: “Mr Shoesmith remembers the landlord helping him up. He suffered significant facial bruising but no fractures to his face or hand.

“You watched him go into the gentlemen’s toilets.

“You were angry and followed him and demanded an apology for what he had said.

“You lost self-control. You left him bleeding on the floor and said to the landlord ‘you better clean up the mess in the toilet’.”