A MAN has avoided an immediate jail sentence after assaulting a woman.

Christopher Crawford was charged with assaulting the woman by beating her on March 6.

The 28-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to the offence, committed in Bowness, when he appeared before South Cumbria Magistrates' Court in Barrow.

Crawford, of Elizabeth Street in Salford, was handed a 10-week jail sentence suspended for two years.

He was also told to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work and handed a victim surcharge of £122 and £85 in costs to the Crown Prosecution Service.