A friend of an East Oxford bar owner suffered a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain after being punched to the floor.

Robert Wallace lashed out at Gene Meta as he was ushered out of Bar Aroma in Cowley Road, East Oxford.

Mr Meta fell and hit his head and was treated in hospital for five days.

Wallace, 37, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday having earlier admitted one count of actual bodily harm.

Prosecutor Paul Harrison said of the March 16 incident: “Mr Meta knew the owner of Aroma in Cowley Road.

“He saw the defendant Mr Wallace was making something of a nuisance of himself. He was talking to girls in the bar, he seemed to be annoying them. He shouted and sat at a reserved table.”

Mr Harrison said staff went to speak to Wallace, of Snowshill Drive, Witney, and Mr Meta helped “escort him out”, at which point he was punched.

Wallace, who has five previous convictions for 14 offences, was given 100 hours’ unpaid work and must comply with four months’ supervision and a restorative-justice programme and pay £500 costs and £500 compensation.