A SOUTHAMPTON man has been handed a five-month prison sentence for spitting at a fellow dweller of a bail hostel.

Macauley John Rice, aged 23 and of Bracklesham Close, Sholing, admitted assaulting two men by beating them at an address in Millbrook Road West, Southampton, on March 20.

A court hearing before magistrates in Southampton on July 1 sentenced Rice, who was already a serving prisoner, to five months in prison to run concurrently to his existing sentence for spitting at one of the men.

The bench noted in the current climate that illnesses and diseases can be transmitted by spitting. The defendant was ordered to pay a £122 surcharge.

Magistrates handed Rice a four-month jail sentence to run concurrently for the second assault, which was described as an unprovoked attack.

He had also admitted using threatening or abusive words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress at Southampton General Hospital on April 14.

Magistrates gave no separate penalty for this offence.