A YOUNG man punched someone in the face in front of children before throwing a pint glass at the windscreen of a passing car, a court heard.

John Alan Charlton hit the man outside the Oak Tree public house in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, at around 5.30pm on Saturday, February 15.

Blair Martin, prosecuting at the town’s magistrates court today (Monday, February 17), said Charlton had been captured on CCTV having a conversation and a playful scuffle with the victim inside the pub immediately before the incident.

“The man has then gone outside the pub for a cigarette and the defendant has followed the male outside and punched him in the face,” said Mr Martin.

“The defendant was restrained and dragged back into the pub. There were children playing in the immediate area.”

The victim did not press charges against Charlton, of Honister Place, Newton Aycliffe, but police charged him with using threatening and abusive words and behaviour.

The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to the offence and a further charge of criminal damage, relating to an incident near DL5 sports bar on the same evening, which saw him throw a pint glass over his shoulder and into the windscreen of a passing Peugeot 206.

The court heard how Charlton was under licence from a Young Offenders Institute at the time of the offences and had also breached a conditional discharge imposed last October for the same offences.

Nick Woodhouse, mitigating, said the victim had bullied Charlton in the past and described the pint glass act as “reckless and careless” rather than intentional.

Magistrates adjourned the case until Wednesday, March 5, for probation reports. Charlton was remanded in custody to await the hearing.