A WORCESTER man has been sent to prison after a random assault outside a city nightclub.

Peter O’Neill approached a man who was having a cigarette outside Images nightclub and without warning punched him in the face.

The blow was captured on CCTV and, after watching the footage, District Judge Bruce Morgan sent O’Neill to prison for three months.

“This is just another case of mindless street thuggery in the streets of Worcester,” said Mr Morgan.

“People do not like to go out now to the streets at night in case they meet someone like you being violent for the sake of violence.”

The assault happened shortly after 1.30am on Sunday, June 15, when an intoxicated O’Neill staggered over to the man.

O’Neill admitted assault when he appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court.

The unprovoked attack left the victim with a bloody and bruised nose.

Thirty-one-year-old O’Neill, of Glenthorne Avenue, Brickfields, Worcester, was later arrested but was too drunk to be kept in the cells so was taken to Worcestershire Royal Hospital where he was kept in overnight for observation.

He later told police his drink had been spiked, but there was no evidence of this from the blood samples taken when he was in hospital.

Barry Newton, defending, said: “He had had five pints to drink and he has not been in trouble for some considerable time.”