A REDDITCH man with a history of violence who punched a teenage party guest and swung the branch of a tree at him has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Worcester Crown Court heard that 22-year-old Ellis Field’s victim suffered a displaced nose and a cut head in the attack, which happened at a house party in Barnt Green on New Year’s Eve in 2012.

Field, of High Trees Close, Oakenshaw, admitted assaulting 17-year-old Joshua Harris-James, causing actual bodily harm.

He was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years, put on probation and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work and to pay a £100 victim surcharge.

Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC said an anaesthetist who was also at the party managed to put Mr Harris-James’s nose back into place immediately.

The victim’s father had written a letter describing the effect of Field’s “thoughtless behaviour”, said the judge.

Richard Gibbs, prosecuting, told the court 30 to 40 people were at the party and the victim’s friend Thomas Mason had described Field as pacing back and forth before throwing a drink can to the ground, going to Mr Harris-James and saying: “What, what, what?”

Field then punched Mr Harris-James and swung a tree branch around, causing a cut to his victim’s head.

Mr Gibbs added that Field had 27 previous convictions for a total of 41 offences, including violence and dishonesty.

Kevin Grego, defending, said the letter to the court from the victim’s father could have been headed: “Any parent’s nightmare.”

But he added that Field, who had been given a community sentence for a common assault that took place a few weeks before the New Year’s Eve party, had not been in trouble since.

And that was due to his relationship with his current girlfriend, who had changed him a great deal.

Mr Grego said a scuffle had broken out at the party between Field’s friends and another group of male guests.

"It was a potent mixture of young teenage males and males in their early 20s and copious quantities of alcohol," he said.

"Very few of those present acquitted themselves in a fashion where if their parents had been present they would have been proud of themselves."