A WINDOW cleaner who armed himself with a bread knife and cut another man's neck in a Christmas revenge attack has been jailed for 18 months.

Christopher Michael John Smith, 46, saw red after he and Jason Bostock brawled in the Flag And Whistle pub, in Huntington, York, late on December 23, said prosecutor Rob Galley.

He fetched a breadknife from his New Earswick home, before going to Mr Bostock's nearby home early on Christmas Eve. The two men scuffled in the street and Smith cut Mr Bostock's neck slightly. Mr Bostock also had a broken little finger and a cut to his forehead.

"You decided to go round to his house and sort him out, and you took a knife with you and with that knife you cut him, not terribly seriously, but you cut him," said the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, to Smith.

Smith, of Rose Tree Grove, New Earswick, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm, assault and carrying a knife in public.

His barrister, Taryn Turner, said the two men had argued in the past over missing money and the flare-up in the pub ended with Mr Bostock hitting Smith on the head with a bar-stool.

"If the matter had rested there, you would not now be going to prison," the judge told him.

Mrs Turner said Smith had taken the knife in case someone attacked him and there was some suggestion Mr Bostock had armed himself with a monkey wrench for the street fight.

The antagonism between the two sides had now disappeared.

Mr Galley said during the pub scuffle, Smith head-butted Mr Bostock. The two men lived near each other, and later that night, Smith went round to Mr Bostock's home with the bread knife. Mr Galley said during the street fight, Mr Bostock felt something cold on the rear of his neck and panicked.