A drunk who threw a cowardly punch at a pub doorman smashing his jaw and knocking out his teeth was jailed for two years.
The doorman at The Jokers pub in Stockton had been trying to calm down Mark Graham, 31, and he was turning away when Graham floored him.
Graham, a fork lift driver, left him needing a four hour operation, plates in his face and stitches inside his mouth which cost him nearly £3,000 in lost wages.
The victim, who was a trained and registered doorman used to handling drink-fuelled situations, said in a victim impact statement: “I can’t believe and can’t get my head around how cowardly the assault was.
“I am lucky not to be more seriously injured or even killed.
“When you are struck from the side when not even looking at the male it was cowardly.
“I have been working as door staff since 2011 and you expect to have confrontations, but I was off work for three months.
“I had only been working for the company for two weeks, not long enough to get paid when I was injured.”
Prosecutor Sue Jacobs told Teesside Crown Court that Graham struck him hard when he looked away. He was completely unaware of what was going to happen to him.
Graham told police that he regretted what happened and that he had caused such devastating injuries.
Miss Jacobs said that Graham had been put out of the pub at 1.45am on September 20 after he had an altercation with a woman during which he pushed her, causing her to fall to the floor.
He stayed outside the pub for some time remonstrating with the door staff. She said that the pub’s CCTV recorded the doorman turning his head to the side and then Graham punched him hard in a cowardly attack.
Graham said in interview that he had drunk one pint and seven bottles of lager, and he was about 6 out of 10 on the drunkenness scale.
Duncan McReddie, defending, said that Graham’s best mitigation was his full admissions at interview and his expressions of regret.
He added: “There is nothing within the commission of the offence that would mitigate his conduct on that occasion.
“I accept that the custodial threshold is crossed. It is difficult to assemble a coherent argument to say that it is not a Category One injury. There was no intention to cause that degree of injury.
“There is a single blow which Mr Graham accepts was caused by the frustration of being evicted from the premises. An immediate custodial sentence would have a severe impact on his partner and his children.”
The judge told Graham that the doorman was just going about his job when he was the victim of a cowardly attack.
Judge Peter Armstrong said: “The victim was just doing his job as a doorman trying to keep the peace, and when he turned to the side you took the opportunity to hit him causing very serious injuries indeed.
“He himself described it as a very cowardly attack.”
Graham, of Welland Crescent, Stockton, was jailed for two years after he pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm.
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