A TEENAGER who fired off a volley of homophobic abuse at a gay man in a drunken assault in the street is behind bars.

Stuart Trinder had been put on a suspended sentence for punching the man to the ground then kicking him when he was down after snarling ‘what do you want faggot?’.

But in the five months since being spared jail the 19-year-old has completed just one of the 220 hours he was ordered to do.

He also re-offended and repeatedly failed to turn up for appointments with probation officers at an attendance centre, doing just three of the 20 hours he was ordered to.

Matthew Scott, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court: “It is a catalogue of failing to attend date after date in March and April.”

Trinder, of Albany Close, Park North, admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence, imposed in December. He also breached a community order handed down by magistrates in March for criminal damage at his mum’s house in January.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had been living away from home when he was on bail conditions not to contact his mum.

He said although he didn’t get all of the mail sent to him, he also didn’t go to find out what should be happening on his order.

“This is possibly an immature young man who frankly has not taken it as seriously as he should have done,” he said.

He urged the court to give him one more chance to complete the orders and to punish him with a curfew.

Judge Douglas Field said: “I conclude that you have indeed made very little progress on this order, you demonstrated wilful non-compliance on the order.

“I find that it is not unjust to impose the period of custody set out in the terms of the suspended sentence and so you are going to be sent to custody for a period of four months.”

The attack on the gay man took place after they had been drinking in the Casbah nightclub on Thursday, July 18 into the next morning.

A friend with the defendant had been to school with the victim, who said he used to bully him because of his sexuality when the groups met outside the Jury’s Inn hotel on Fleming Way.

Words were exchanged between the groups and Trinder became abusive, calling the victim a ‘faggot’ and saying ‘What do you want faggot?’ He punched him, knocking him down, then rained kicks on his head and body.

When a friend of the victim stepped in to stop the violence he turned on him, flooring him with a punch before landing blows as he was on the ground.

But after hearing Trinder, who admitted two counts of ABH, was not motivated by the victim’s sexuality, and had no previous convictions, a judge suspended the jail term.