A VOLUNTARY charity worker punched his female next- door-neighbour in the face and later admitted it to police.

Officers were questioning Christopher Price about his neighbour's drunk and disorderly behaviour when he exclaimed: "I slapped her twice, I'm 18 stone - is she still standing?".

They had been called to Vernon Park Road, St John's, Worcester, after a disturbance at Caroline Haynes' home.

Mrs Haynes suffered bruising and swelling to her head, and also banged the back of her head on concrete after she fell from the garden wall she was sitting on following the attack.

Price was found guilty of assault by beating after a trial and he was fined £600 for the offence and ordered to pay £200 compensation to Mrs Haynes when he appeared before the city's magistrates on Friday.

Sally Cairns, prosecuting, said the incident arose out of a domestic disturbance at Mrs Hayne's address.

"She decided to leave the house to try and defuse the situation and sat outside on the garden wall when her neighbour walked down the road," she said. "There has been some history between them over previous years."

She said Price hit his neighbour after he got her attention. "It was a clenched right fist right on the left temple and there was another punch to the left side of the jaw which caused her to fall backwards off the wall and she banged her head on the floor," she said.

Price, aged 59, was arrested immediately after he told police officers he had hit his neighbour. In mitigation, Andrew Childs said the incident was totally out of character for a man who devotes a lot of his time to charity work and reminded the court Mrs Haynes was also arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

"There are allegations she got bruises but they could have come from another incident because there was a minor family dispute, and she had a violent struggle with police," he said.

Worcester magistrates ordered Price to pay £455 costs.