A MAN who threw a glass after trouble flared in a pub told a court: “I’m no angel when I have had a drink.”

Jamie Stoop told Judge Gary Burrell how heavy drinking had always been the cause of his offending, and he was sorry for the latest episode which happened at the Big Cheese pub in the city.

He explained to Southampton Crown Court how he had been celebrating passing his driving test and it had led to a heavy drinking session.

Prosecutor Simon Foster had told the court how trouble had flared on January 13 which resulted in Stoop grappling with a man and throwing a glass he had been holding.

The glass hit Michael Elliott, a doorman, leaving him with a cut to the head needing four stitches. Everyone accepted the glass had been thrown recklessly rather than with intent and Stoop, a groundworker, admitted a charge of causing actual bodily harm.

Reading from a statement he prepared, 24-year-old Stoop, who had previous convictions for violence, said he now recognised he needed help to address his problem with alcohol.

“I do not commit offences when I am sober,” he said, adding he had secured counselling.

Judge Burrell ordered Stoop, of Rossington Avenue, Southampton, to be electronically tagged to stick to a three-month curfew on Friday and Saturday nights between 9pm and 7am.

He was also given a community order with a 12-month supervision requirement and ordered to pay £250 compensation to Mr Elliott.