Community order for punching nightclubber

A 25-year-old man who felled a nightclubber with a single punch has been given a community order and told he must stay indoors at night.

Luke Brueton will now be electronically tagged for the next 12 weeks to ensure he stays at his home in Clare Road, Halifax, between 6pm and 6am after he admitted assaulting Paul Stewart in Commercial Street last November.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Brueton was so disgusted with his behaviour during the early hours incident that he couldn’t watch CCTV footage of the assault on Mr Stewart which took place as they stood next to each other on the pavement.

Prosecutor David Lampitt said the footage, which was not played in court, did not show any aggressive body language between the two men, but without any warning Bru- eton punched Mr Stewart once causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the pavement.

Brueton, who insisted he had not meant to cause any serious injury, walked off, and by the time police officers arrived on the scene Mr Stewart was being assisted by a member of the public.

In hospital Mr Stewart had seven stitches put in cuts to the back of his head and part of his jaw was found to have been fractured.

Mr Lampitt said during Brueton’s police interview he couldn’t bring himself to watch the actual assault on the CCTV footage.

Brueton, who had previous convictions for offences of assault and common assault, pleaded guilty to the latest assault when he appeared before the crown court last month for a preliminary hearing.

His lawyer Sarah Guttman said there was some evidence relating to the complainant’s behaviour in the nightclub earlier, but she submitted that her client was mortified by his own actions.

Ms Guttman said Brueton’s problem had been binge drinking at weekends, but she told Recorder Sandra Knapton that he had not done that since the incident last year.

Recorder Knapton told Brueton that if he had struck more than one blow or followed up the attack with kicks he would have been in a very different position.

The judge said Brueton would receive credit for his early guilty plea and she accepted that his regret and remorse was genuine. The 12-week home curfew was imposed as part of a one-year community order and Brueton will also have to pay £250 costs.