A good Samaritan was attacked as he rushed to help a woman in distress.

Darryl Cooper was punched and then kicked by Scott Healey as he lay on the ground.

He had tried to intervene when he saw how upset Healey’s girlfriend was as he rowed with her in the street.

Healey, 19, pleaded guilty to assault when he appeared at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court.

The incident happened at Nab Lane in Mirfield on July 9.

Several members of the public called police when they witnessed the couple fighting and arguing.

Mr Cooper left his house and tried to intervene, prosecutor Jill Seddon said.

She explained: “He could see them both shouting at each other with the female on the floor.

“Mr Cooper told then told them to pack it in and told the female to come home with him so that he could separate them.

“He took hold of the female and she was still distressed with the male shouting at her.”

As Mr Cooper stood in between them, Healey pushed him backwards and punched him to the face.

Mrs Seddon said: “This caused him to fall into his back and while he was on his back he was kicked.

Kirklees Magistrates Court, Huddersfield.

“Mr Cooper says: ‘No one had any right to assault me – I was only trying to help’.”

Mohammed Arif, mitigating, said that his client had been out with his girlfriend and she was extremely intoxicated.

He told the Huddersfield court that she punched Healey, causing a bloody nose, and when Mr Cooper arrived he did not see the full extent of what happened.

Mr Arif added that Healey, of Nettleton Avenue in Mirfield, did not want anyone near his girlfriend and the victim was a stranger to her.

The court heard that the apprentice butcher drunk eight pints in the hours prior to the attack.

He had argued with his girlfriend because she wanted to go and get some food while he just wanted to go home to sleep.

District Judge Peter Johnson sentenced Healey to a community order with 33 days of activities.

He must comply with an eight-week curfew and pay Mr Cooper £200 compensation.

He also has to pay £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.