A man left his victim with multiple facial fractures when he threw him to the ground and delivered a brutal punch to the head when he intervened in an argument.

Brad-Lee Wilson became embroiled in the row between his victim and his partner when the couple were walking home from a Darlington town centre pub.

CCTV captured the pair as the walked from the Boot and Shoe pub, past the town’s police station and along past the Black Swan on Yarm Road moments before the drinker was knocked unconscious.

Jon Harley, prosecuting, said the couple were walking separately before reigniting their argument and this was when Wilson stepped in before confronting the victim.

He said: “The defendant gets up close and into his face. The complainant doesn’t appear to react to this and stands his ground.

“After a short time, the defendant grabs him by the collar, throws him to the ground where he straddles him.

“The complainant started to thrash his legs about but the defendant keeps him in place and punches him once in the face, knocking him unconscious.”

Mr Harley said that the defendant, his friend and the victim’s partner, walk off together leaving the man unconscious in the street.

The man was taken to hospital for treatment to serious facial fractures.

In a victim impact statement, he said he was unable to eat following the attack and no longer wanted to go to the pub to socialise.

Wilson, of Stocks Moor Close, Darlington, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm following the attack on March 9, 2022.

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, said: “The attack was not pre-planned and should have simply kept walking. He tried to intervene and assist the woman.

“He delivered one blow which did cause some significant injuries to the complainant.”

Judge Richard Bennett told Wilson that he had ‘come very to going to prison’ as he passed a ten-month custodial sentence suspended for 18 months.

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“I have watched the video of the incident, there was no need for you to become involved in the dispute.

“It’s clear to me that she was the aggressor until you got involved,” he said.

“You got into his face, he offered you no violence, and you pulled him to the ground, straddled him and punched him once, with such force that it rendered him unconscious.”

Wilson was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.