A man has been given a suspended jail sentence after he head-butted another customer in a Huddersfield pub, leaving him unconscious.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday that Charlie Walker also kicked his victim, Daniel Brearley, in the body as lay on the floor in the Olde Hatte in Trinity Street.

Nigel Wray, prosecuting, said that following the assault Mr Brearley remembered going out that night but not being in the Olde Hatte at all.

CCTV showed the pair talking and Walker then head-butting him, knocking him backwards.

Mr Wray said: “He lands on the floor and the defendant falls on top of him and then punches him.”

Mr Wray said two men with Walker pulled him away as Mr Brearley lay motionless on the floor. When they released Walker he went back to the complainant “and kicks him once to the right hand side of the body”.

Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court

He told the court Walker’s friends then pulled him away again and the three left. An ambulance was called and the police were contacted and given a description that the assailant was wearing a high-visibility jacket.

Walker was then spotted walking up Trinity Street and he was seen to have a cut to his forehead. When cautioned he claimed to have acted in self-defence.

Mr Brearley was treated in hospital for a cut to the back of his head and is still wary of going out into Huddersfield.

When he was interviewed, Walker said he thought the complainant was going to glass him so reacted first. He said he had kicked the other man on the floor out of “frustration and adrenaline”.

The court heard Walker was given a suspended sentence in June 2012 for an assault.

James Horne, representing Walker, said it was a case of “too much to drink and over-reaction”.

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He was still a young man with growing up to do but fortunately had a good job and supportive family. He urged the judge not to jail him immediately.

Walker, 25, of Broomfield Road, Marsh, admitted assaulting Mr Brearley on December 16 last year.

He was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years with 20 activity days and 240 hours' unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £200 prosecution costs and £500 compensation to Mr Brearley.

Judge Rodney Jameson QC told him he had come extremely close to going to jail immediately but it was more constructive to allow him to continue to work “and pay compensation to a man who deserves it”.