A drunken thug who knocked a friend out with a single punch, leaving him with a fractured cheek and eye socket, has walked free from court.

Mark Horton delivered the devastating blow while his victim was sitting on a bar stool in a Middlesbrough pub chatting with a woman.

CCTV footage showed the 44-year-old stroll towards his victim before throwing the punch and knocking the man to the ground in the unprovoked attack after he ‘saw red’ while out drinking.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the victim had no recollection of the incident and woke up in the beer garden of the Rudds Arms surrounded by a number of people before being taken to hospital for treatment.

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Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said: “There was CCTV which showed the defendant come up and punch him once, with sufficient force to knock him from his chair and render him unconscious.”

The man suffered a fractured cheek bone and eye socket as a result of the heavy blow and is still suffering from nerve damage to his face, the court heard.

The judge heard how Horton contacted his friend and apologised for what he had done to him.

In a victim impact statement, the man said he still suffered from pain in his face and often feels aches and sharp, excruciating pain due to nerve damage.

Horton, of Great West Garden, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm following the incident on September 4 last year.

John Nixon, in mitigation, said his client was of previous good character and had reacted badly to something a friend of the victim had said to him.

He added Horton had recently lost his mother and was struggling to overcome the impact of Covid on his health at the time of the assault.

Mr Nixon added: “He was devastated by what he had done.”

Judge Timothy Stead sentenced Horton to a 12-month community order and told him to carry out 130 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “You have never been before the courts before and I don’t believe you will be before the courts again. What you did was highly regrettable and you do regret it.

“This is a case of you being drunk and losing your temper and punched somebody who had been a friend of yours for a number of years.”

Horton was also ordered to attend ten rehabilitation activity requirement days.

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