The assistant manager of a Worcester hotel has been given a suspended prison sentence after being convicted of hitting another man with a crutch.

Mark Smith, aged 29, of Rydal Close, Warndon, Worcester, was warned by recorder David Tucker at the end of the trial last November that custody was likely.

But when the case came for sentence at Worcester Crown Court yesterday, the recorder said he appreciated that the four-month delay had not been Smith's fault and he had been subjected to a long period of anxiety.

He was also impressed that Smith, who had no previous convictions, had improved his behaviour and stopped drinking heavily.

He suspended for two years a nine-month jail sentence on Smith, who was found guilty of wounding Joseph MacEwen outside the Pig and Drum in Lowesmoor on April 30 last year. Smith was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work for the community under a supervision order and to pay £1,000 court costs.

Nicolas Cartwright, defending, said Smith's job as assistant manager at the Five Ways Hotel in Angel Place would have been in jeopardy had he lost his liberty.

He had been put on probation for three months by his employers but had emerged with satisfactory references.

Recorder Tucker said he had received two "glowing" reports from Smith's employers and it would be counter-productive to send him to prison.