A South Croydon pub regular fed up with jibes about his sexuality ran after a barmaid and hit her with a piece of wood.

Croydon Crown Court heard last Friday that Philip McHugo, who has been a regular at the Folly pub since the 1970s, caused serious head injuries to Kamilla Jillani when he was found guilty of causing grievious bodily harm.

Miss Jillani, a member of the bar staff at the pub, claimed McHugo had once called her "a slag".

She agreed that remarks had been made in the pub about his sexuality, but it had all been done "in a joking way".

On March 25 last year, she left the pub at closing time and walked up the road with a friend.

"I went to NatWest Bank and was using the cash machine when I heard someone behind me," Miss Jillani told the court, "I turned around and saw Phil running across the road. He was holding what looked like a length of wood. He raised it and hit me over the head. It cut my head open. I stumbled but didn't fall to the ground. Then he went to hit Joanna who was standing next to me but he missed. "

Miss Jillani, with blood pouring from her head, chased after the attacker but lost him.

She was taken to Mayday Hospital where 11 stitches were inserted in the wound.

McHugo claimed he had been beaten up three times - once by two men impersonating police officers.

He knew comments were being made about him at the Folly, but he had not been upset by them.

"I felt no animosity," he said.

He denied calling Miss Jillani names and denied that he was the person who had attacked her.

He said he come out of the pub on that night, got on his motor-cycle and ridden to Margate to visit his brother. He had not been in Selsdon Road.

Mr McHugo, living at the YMCA in Dingwall Road, Croydon, was remanded in custody until September 15. Judge Simon Pratt called for a psychiatric report and a probation service report - and he warned McHugo that imprisonment was almost a certainty.