A MAN who cowardly attacked a frail 63-year-old after following him home from an Ipswich pub is today beginning a 50-month jail term. Robert Clements suffered a punctured lung, bruised ribs, black eyes and a nose injury after being punched in the head and kicked in the body by 41-year-old Paul Golightly Ipswich Crown Court heard.

A MAN who cowardly attacked a frail 63-year-old after following him home from an Ipswich pub is today beginning a 50-month jail term.

Robert Clements suffered a punctured lung, bruised ribs, black eyes and a nose injury after being punched in the head and kicked in the body by 41-year-old Paul Golightly Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Earlier Mr Clements, who uses a walking stick, and Golightly had been drinking together in the Golden Lion pub in Ipswich said Jamie Sawyer prosecuting.

As they left the premises the defendant had asked Mr Clements where he lived and had followed him back to his home in Rendlesham Court. There he had asked Mr Clements for money in exchange for clothing and then had carried out a vicious attack on him.

Mr Sawyer said that Mr Clements had lived alone since the death of his wife. “He managed to get himself into bed and he wasn't discovered until the next day when his friends were concerned to look for him”.

Golightly of Norfolk Road, Ipswich admitted unlawfully wounding Mr Clements and a bail offence.

Sentencing him Recorder David Anderson described the attack as cowardly and said there was an element of pre-meditation in the way he had found out where Mr Clements lived. “You picked on someone who had not the least chance of fighting back”, said the judge.

Noel Casey, for Golightly, said his client accepted striking one blow to Mr Clements head and kicking his body.

He said that Golightly was not normally a violent man and the injuries suffered by Mr Clements were not as serious as they could have been.