A CHEF was given a community order and 100 hours of unpaid work after he pinched a 14-year-old boy's nipple with a pair of kitchen tongs.

Michael Bright, aged 53, was working as a head chef at a pub when he pinched the boy's nipple on December 3 last year, Weymouth Magistrates Court heard.

Prosecuting, Andrew Newman, told the court that the victim started working at the pub in August last year. In a statement to police the victim described a series of incidents involving Bright where he was pinched on the nipple and said it started happening every shift he worked causing him more and more pain.

The victim said he told Bright to stop doing it because it hurt to which Bright replied, "oh, you love it really".

The victim also recalled other incidents where Bright would whip him with a towel - on one occasion saying Bright struck him on the bottom when he bent down to pick something up.

The court heard that on December 3 last year the victim was carrying metal trays in the pub kitchen and that as he walked past, Bright picked up a pair of metal kitchen tongs 'clamped them' on the victim's right nipple and pulled.

Mr Newman said the victim rated the pain as a '9 or 10 out of 10' and said he had to sit down for five minutes to recover. He said that the area was left with bruising and that he was in pain for a week.

The prosecution said the victim did not want to go back to work because he feared it would happen again and ended up leaving his job as a result.

Mitigating Ms Taylor said Bright, of Butts Knapp, Shaftesbury, had been working as a chef since the age of 16 and said that the sort of behaviour described in court is something he himself was subject to and was something he grew up to see as 'standard kitchen banter'.

She said: "He has learnt a hard lesson from this.

"Mr Bright is a 53-year-old man previously of good character."

She said Bright has since stopped working at the pub and has started working at a new establishment as a chef where he is well liked.

Ms Taylor said Bright was not aware of the victim's age and said that it was not a targeted attack which was done with malice or with an intent to harm.

Bright entered a guilty plea for the charge of assault by beating for the offence.

Chairman of the bench, Mr Fearn, gave Bright a 12-month community order for the offence and ordered him to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work which must be completed by the end of his community order.

Bright was also ordered to pay £100 compensation and a £90 victim surcharge.