A FIFTY-five-year-old man needed hospital treatment after he was subjected to an "unprovoked and sustained" attack in Workington.

At Carlisle Crown Court today, a judge jailed the man responsible for the violence, 25-year-old Scott Motum, 25, of Cusack Crescent, Workington.

The defendant had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to assaulting the victim and causing him actual bodily harm.

Prosecutor Tim Evans described how the victim had been returning from a trip to his local Spar shop and walking along a back lane with a friend who was in a Motability Scooter. The two men were then approached by Motum, who asked if they had a problem with him.

He also asked if they were laughing at him.

"[The victim] replied that they were not laughing at him, at which point the defendant threw punches at [his] head," said Mr Evans. Motum then pulled the victim's jacket over his head and pulled him to the ground. He continued the attack after the man fell to the ground.

The violence ended only when the man Motum was with pulled him away.

The victim suffered a split lip, a black eye, and significant pain to the body, aggravated by him being kicked in the stomach and having a pre-existing hernia. In his victim personal statement, the man said he had been "scared to death" of the defendant."This has shaken me really badly," he said.

"I thought I was going to die."

Sean Harkin, for Motum, said the defendant had expressed remorse.

The lawyer said the defendant suffered from post traumatic stress because he himself had previously been stabbed, though he had been unable to name his attacker. "He'd have been wary as a result and that has contributed to his reaction to what was a verbal altercation," said Mr Harkin.

Recorder Katherine Pierpoint said she was sentencing Motum in accordance with his basis of plea - that he punched his victim two or three times to the head, pulled him to the ground and then kicked him to the stomach.

"It was an unprovoked assault which should not have taken place," she said.

The judge noted that the defendant's previous history of 23 offences, which included convictions for violence in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2019. She said Motum's convictions revealed there was a "concerning" pattern emerging of him dealing with difficult situations by resorting to violence and aggression.

"In my judgement," added the Recorder, "this offence is so serious that only immediate custody can be justified."

As well iimposing a one-year jail term, she imposed a five year restraining order banning any contact with the victim for that period of time. The defendant will be eligible for release on licence after he has served six months of his jail term.