A DRUNKEN pubgoer who punched a Huddersfield doorman and was then violently restrained by his victim's colleagues has been fined £500.
Steven Dawson, 25, of Belton Street, Moldgreen, was also ordered to pay £250 compensation to Oliver Scott and £250 in court costs, after pleading guilty to causing actual bodily harm.
John Boumphrey, prosecuting, told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that Mr Scott was talking to the DJ inside Lloyd's Bar in Huddersfield when Dawson walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.
As he turned round, Dawson punched him once in the face, causing injuries to his nose and mouth.
Mr Scott stumbled down some steps to the dance floor and three of his fellow doormen moved in to take Dawson out of the premises.
Outside, he began shouting and was detained until the police arrived.
In interview, he told officers that he had drunk 13-15 lagers and several shots of brandy. He said Mr Scott had motioned with his shoulders as if he was going to strike him.
Dawson, who has previous convictions for assault, claimed that Mr Scott and his fellow doormen assaulted him after he was taken outside.
For Dawson, it was stated that he had an altercation with Mr Scott a few months earlier, in which he had been struck.
On the night of the offence he was under the impression that Mr Scott was staring at him, but he accepted he should not have reacted in the way he did.
He was hospitalised with a shoulder injury as a result of what happened outside and felt a sense of injustice that his complaint was ignored by the prosecuting authorities.
Passing sentence after watching CCTV footage of the incident outside the premises, Judge Stephen Ashurst told Dawson: "The door staff plainly were not desperately gentle with you. There is no evidence you offered violence outside. It looks as though you were being restrained and some violence was used."
