A man who carried out a drunken attack on another member of a group celebrating a mutual friend’s birthday has narrowly avoided an immediate prison sentence.

Following a brief initial scuffle, Dean Remmer delivered a flurry of blows on the highly inebriated victim as they were making their way from a pub in Seaham, late on April 16, 2022.

Durham Crown Court was told the victim conceded a short time earlier he felt really drunk and unsteady on his feet at about midnight and began bumping into other customers’ tables at the Inn Between, in South Railway Street.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, said a member of door staff went to eject him, but his cousin persuaded him to leave in any event.

(Image: The Northern Echo)

Others followed and, on the walk home, in Church Street, an argument broke out but the victim could not recall what caused it.

He could, however, remember being punched and then described, “everything going blank”.

He believed he fell to the ground, but he managed to get back on his feet and “losing it”, trying to get to the defendant, but he was held back by others.

The victim required hospital treatment to have metal plates inserted into his jaw, which was broken.

He also suffered bruising and swelling to the neck, a cut to the right shoulder and several other grazes.

Mr Towers said an expert's report, based on viewing CCTV footage in the area, concluded that "on the balance of probabilities", the injuries were caused by a vigorous series of punches delivered to the left side of the victim’s face.

He said the prosecution's view is that there were seven to eight punches in succession and a kick at the end.

In an impact statement, the victim said he suffered permanent nerve damage to the left side of the jaw and even the act of yawning causes intense pain which takes about a minute to wear off.

He said he had never suffered from anything similar in the past and it has affected his mental health, making him reluctant to go out, and also affected his work and relationships.

The 37-year-old defendant of Robert Square, Seaham, denied the original charge of wounding with intent, but his subsequent plea to unlawful wounding was accepted by the prosecution at a previous hearing.

Shaun Routledge, for Remmer, told the sentencing hearing it was, “essentially out of character” as he only has one previous unrelated conviction.

Mr Routledge said “words were exchanged” over the victim’s behaviour in the last premises they visited that night and after a brief exchange of blows, the defendant was guilty of delivering the flurry of further punches, causing the injury, when the other man ran down the road towards him.

But Mr Routledge said the defendant did express remorse in his interview with the Probation Service and was cooperative in the preparation of a background report for the court.

(Image: The Northern Echo) He said there has been no further trouble in the two-and-a-half years since the incident, despite both living in the same area.

Mr Routledge described the defendant as, “a hard-working, intelligent individual”, who is employed by a construction company operating previously in Wales and now in Northern Ireland.

Judge Nathan Adams told Remmer that the “minor scuffle” leaving the pub should have been the end of the disagreement between the pair.

“He came back and you set about an unlawful and violent assault upon him, punching him repeatedly, fracturing his jaw and leaving him with permanent nerve damage in the jaw.

“I reject any suggestion of self-defence, having seen the footage.”

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But Judge Adams said he accepted it was “a relatively spontaneous” incident in which no weapons were used.

He told Remmer he had sent people to prison for lesser offences, but balanced by his good character, other than a single motoring conviction, and the Probation Service view that he is not considered to pose a risk, he said he was, “just persuaded” to step back from imposing an immediate term of imprisonment.

Passing a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, he ordered the defendant to complete 250 hours’ unpaid work and pay the victim of his attack £2,400 compensation, at the rate of £ 150 per month from January 1.