A PENSIONER was assaulted after asking a motorist to pick up a sweet wrapper, discarded from his car window.

Stephen Jackson, 35, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault, causing the 71-year-old victim actual bodily harm, at a short hearing at Durham Crown Court.

The incident took place as Jackson was driving in the Hillside area, off Newcastle Road, Chester-le-Street, on July 26, last year.

Having seen Jackson throw the wrapper from a king-size Twix bar from the driver's window, the elderly man asked him to pick it up.

But Ward got out of the car and struck the pensioner, knocking him to the ground.

He suffered a broken finger and a muscle injury in the fall, while a female neighbour, who came to his aid, was also brushed aside by Jackson.

David Callan, prosecuting, said that given Jackson's guilty plea to the actual bodily harm charge, the Crown did not intend to pursue a further allegation of common assault, relating to the part of the incident involving the woman.

John Wilkinson, for Jackson, asked for reports to be drawn up on his client by the probation service, prior to sentence.

"There is nothing on the face of the papers, or on his record, to suggest he has a propensity to violence," said Mr Wilkinson.

Recorder Jonathan Aitken adjourned sentence for preparation of the reports and granted Jackson bail to return to court, to learn his fate, on February 11.

He told him: "I can give you no promises as to what the sentence will be, but if you breach bail conditions you will be remanded in custody and make things worse for yourself."

Jackson, of Blair Close, Fencehouses, near Chester-le-Street, was given bail on condition he does not go within 50-metres of Hillside.