A MAN has been given a suspended prison sentence for kicking and punching his girlfriend on the ground outside a Plymouth pub.

City magistrates heard that Jamie Hayes, aged 30, punched her in the face and kicked her after she fell over on a grass verge.

Magistrates jailed him for 18 weeks, but suspended the term for two years and ordered that he carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also placed on a curfew between 9pm and 7am every Friday and Saturday night for the length of the order.

Hayes, of Gorsey Close, Crownhill, must also pay the victim £250 in compensation and £200 towards prosecution costs.

He had denied assaulting the woman by beating on September 19 last year but was found guilty after a trial.

Magistrates found that he had kicked as well as punched the woman on the ground.

Paul Frost, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that a witness waiting for a bus spotted the woman being followed by Hayes going backwards and forwards across the road outside the Tamar pub.

He added that the witness saw the woman, who was carrying a glass, fall backwards on a grass verge.

Mr Frost said that the man then punched the woman as she lay on the ground with 'considerable force'.

He added that the witness saw that she was 'upset and crying' and called the police.

The court heard that the woman was taken to Derriford Hospital and complained of being kicked in the head, but she left before police arrived.

Mr Frost said Hayes had two previous convictions, including one for assault.

Owen Lawton, for Hayes, said that he was in full-time work as a delivery driver and would lose his job if sent to jail. He added that Hayes was a carer to his mother who had been suffering from a serious illness.