A boxing coach who repeatedly punched a customer in an Ipswich pub has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Richard Elden was drinking in the Suffolk Punch, in Ipswich, shortly before Christmas last year when he joined in an attack on a customer by a man he had been sitting with, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

During the incident, Elden had punched the man in the bar area and had then assaulted him again when he was on the floor in another room.

Marc Brown, prosecuting, said that as a result of the attack by the defendant and an unidentified man, the victim suffered a bloody and bruised face but no fractures.

Elden, 35, of Norman Crescent, Ipswich, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on December 19 last year and was given a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

He was also given a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and and a 90-day alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement.

He was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the victim and £500 costs.

Simon Gladwell, for Elden, said his client was a volunteer at a boxing club twice a week but hadn’t been able to help out there during lockdown.

He said Elden should have known better and wouldn’t have got involved in the violence if he hadn’t been drinking that afternoon.