A JUDGE has ordered a 23-year-old man to pay compensation totalling £1,500 after he carried out an attack with a brick at Broad Oak Cricket Club last summer.
Jonathan Downs used the brick to hit Robert Campbell on the side of his head after an exchange of abuse between the two men in June last year.
Downs, of Edge Hill, Linthwaite, was originally charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but the prosecution accepted his guilty plea to unlawful wounding at an earlier court hearing.
Yesterday Downs appeared at Bradford Crown Court and was given a 12-month prison term suspended for two years.
Judge Peter Benson said Downs deserved to be sent to prison for the offence, but he was saved by the fact that he had kept out of trouble since the incident and had taken steps to sort his life out and get a job.
The judge said he was imposing the suspended sentence with some reluctance given the severity of the injury caused to Mr Campbell.
Prosecutor Nicholas Worsley told the court that after Downs struck Mr Campbell with the brick, the complainant staggered into the club house bleeding profusely from a cut above his right eye.
The court heard that the blow caused a full thickness cut which meant the bone of the skull could be touched through the wound and it required six stitches.
During initial police interviews Downs denied using a brick and a few days after the incident he tried to get a witness to tell the police he had only punched Mr Campbell.
Downs admitted a separate offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to that matter.
His lawyer Mark Brookes said Downs had written to the judge indicating his remorse for the offending and outlining the significant changes to his behaviour since the incident.
Judge Benson said there was a background of animosity between the two men, but it was accepted that Downs had gone to the ground innocently.
“You did not seek out trouble initially but there was an exchange of abuse between you and Mr Campbell and at one point Mr Campbell grabbed your girlfriend’s arm,” noted Judge Benson.
“You thought, whether correctly or incorrectly, that he was going to touch her breast and he threatened that he would put you on your arse and you lost control, picked up a brick and you struck him very forcibly on the head in the region of his eye.”
The judge noted that as a result of the blow Mr Campbell's vision was impaired for a time and it was not clear whether it would continue to be impaired.
The court heard he had also been left with a scar.
Under the terms of the suspended sentence order Downs must also do 250 hours unpaid work for the community and be supervised by the probation service for the next two years.
He will have to pay compensation to Mr Campbell at the rate of £150 per month.
