A man who attacked a drinker with a broken glass during a row in a pub was today handed a suspended jail sentence.

Lee Horwood, 38, slashed the neck of Oliver Palmer during a dispute in the Chequers pub, in High Street, Oxford, last December.

Oxford Crown Court heard Mr Palmer needed seven stitches after being attacked with the broken glass in the pub’s courtyard.

Clare Tucker, prosecuting, said Mr Palmer described being grabbed before feeling a sharp pain in his neck.

She said: “He saw that he had a gash to his neck. He was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital.”

Peter Coombe, defending, said Horwood, of Freelands Road, East Oxford, admitted causing grievous bodily harm but had earlier tried to calm the situation.

He said: “He is not the instigator of this violence. To some extent there was provocation. He had drunk too much, which he fully accepts.”

Judge Christopher Compston gave Horwood a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, an 18-month supervision order, and told him to pay £450 in compensation.

Addressing Horwood, he said: “It could have been fatal. I accept you pleaded guilty and you are essentially a man of good character.

“To use a glass or a bottle or any weapon at all usually means prison — but it won’t in your case.“