A chocolate factory worker floored the man he suspected of stealing from his late mother.

Joel Hart was drinking at The Cherwell pub in Banbury on May 16 last year, the eighth anniversary of his mother’s death, when he saw his victim walk past the boozer.

Oxford Crown Court heard that 38-year-old Hart believed the man had taken money from his mum and went outside to remonstrate with him.

He pushed the man, who although only in his 50s was so frail witnesses thought was a man in his 70s, to the ground.

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Although the victim managed to get up from the floor with Hart’s help, x-rays later found he had suffered multiple fractures in his hip and pelvis.

He spent two-and-a-half weeks in hospital and said in a police statement that it could be three to six months before he could walk properly again.

Sentencing on Thursday (August 4), Judge Michael Gledhill KC described the man’s injuries as ‘catastrophic’.

He accepted that Hart, who continued the argument after picking the man off the ground and even slapped him, had not known just how serious his victim’s injuries were.

But the judge added: “For whatever reason, I have no idea, you completely lost control of yourself. Your temper got the better of you.”

The defendant was told that the dispute between his victim and his late mother ‘did not matter’.

“Eight years later it was no business of yours to deliberately leave that public house in order to confront him,” Judge Gledhill said.

Hart, of Edmunds Road, Banbury, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to causing grievous bodily harm. He had previous convictions as a young man, but had been out of trouble for 17 years.

Mitigating, Julian Lynch said the defendant knew the seriousness of the offence. “He saw his daughter this morning and said he might go away for some time as he’s aware of the possibility of an immediate custodial sentence.”

He had lost his job at the chocolate factory after the attack, but had the expectation of finding new work if he was not sent to prison immediately, his barrister said.

Judge Gledhill suspended the 20 month jail sentence for two years, saying it was not in the public interest to send him to prison immediately.

Hart will only serve the jail time behind bars if he gets into further trouble or breaches the terms of the suspended sentence order.

As part of his suspended sentence, he must do 180 hours of unpaid work, complete the thinking skills programme, up to 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and pay £1,000 in compensation.