An amateur boxer hospitalised his brother after striking him in the head with a mug over an argument about steroid use, a court heard.

Qaasim Pervaiz grabbed the coffee mug from a sitting room table at their family home on Norfolk Grove in Accrington and struck Azeem Pervaiz, leaving him bleeding from the face and head and in need of stitches.

After the 19-year-old was arrested he then made ‘threatening or menacing’ calls to both his mum and his brother saying he was ‘going to f*** up or chop up his brother’.

Pervaiz, of Rawson Avenue, Accrington, pleaded guilty to ABH and two counts of sending menacing phone calls and was ordered to complete 120 hours’ unpaid work and pay £250 costs.

Peter Barr, prosecuting, told the court how the incident happened at around 7.45am on April 26 this year after Azeem Pervaiz came downstairs to find his brother and mother in the sitting room.

He said: “It’s the Crown’s position that the mother was, in the words of the brother, ‘giving a lecture’ to this defendant about his smoking weed and taking steroids.

"His brother then accepted that he joined in the conversation, at which stage the defendant turned to him and said ‘why are you getting involved?’

“The situation then escalated. The defendant picked up a coffee mug that was sitting on a table in the sitting room.

"He was described as raging and shouting and then struck his brother to the face and the head.

"The photos certainly show a very bloodied face and a lot of blood coming from a laceration to the back of the head.”

Mr Barr said the victim was taken to hospital for treatment and needed four sutures in his head.

The prosecutor said that after his arrest Pervaiz then sent ‘threatening or menacing calls’ to his mother and brother ‘with words to the effect that he’s ‘going to f*** up his brother or chop up his brother.’

"When asked about the matters in interview he denied the assault and said he was wearing a ring at the time and ‘maybe it was the ring that caused injury to his brother’.

Mr Barr said Pervaiz accepted making the phone calls, saying that he was ‘frustrated, angry and agitated by what had happened’.

Defendant ‘objects to assertions he uses drugs’

Defence barrister Neil Howard said Qaasim Pervaiz ‘objects to any assertion that he uses cannabis and steroids’.

He told the court: “The defendant says the argument wasn’t about that and he has no issues with cannabis and steroids.

“Although there is that dispute there, in my submission it wouldn’t make a material difference to sentence.”

Mr Howard said Pervaiz is an ‘extremely industrious and active young man’ who is set to resume his college studies in September and has a job lined up at a factory.

He added: “He spends most of his time training at the gym and has aspirations. He’s a very skilled amateur boxer and ranks nationally. There’s potential to turn professional.”

Judge Beverley Lunt said that was ‘all the more reason not to be hitting people’.

Sentencing, she said: “You don’t behave like this with your family and you certainly don’t speak like that to your mother on the phone.

“You caused a really nasty cut. You are 19 and in every other way are of good character.

"You have worked, tried to do college work, you are not a danger to the public. This was a one-off, from what I’ve read about you.”