A FIVE-A-SIDE football player who punched an opponent leaving him with brain damage walked free from a court yesterday.

A jury took less than an hour to clear Andrew Walker, 22, after other players said that the victim Darren Mitchell, 32, earlier repeatedly punched a man he was marking.

Mr Walker said that he only struck Mr Mitchell to end the attack on "defenceless" Shaun Lyons - but Mr Mitchell catapulted backwards into a wall, causing brain injuries.

Mr Mitchell was in hospital for 13 days after the incident during a league match at Saltburn Leisure Centre, in east Cleveland, between his pub side The Clarendon, in Marske, and North East Tyres and Exhausts, where Mr Walker was a supervisor.

He underwent emergency surgery and was left with scarring on the top of his forehead and has suffered deafness.

Mr Walker, of Foster Street, Brotton, said during his three-day trial at Teesside Crown Court that he was horrified when he saw Mr Mitchell, a telecommunications engineer for the European Golf Tour, lying unconscious.

He said: "It was the only way to stop the assault on Shaun because he was defenceless. It just happened, I was not thinking."

Shaun Lyons said that he was punched about half a dozen times on the back of his head by Mr Mitchell, of Arthur Street, New Marske.

He said: "Afterwards I had a pain in my jaw and a lump on my head. When I looked around he was on the floor, although I did not see how he got there."

Earlier, the court heard that Mr Walker told police: "It was an accident. If he hadn't banged his head he probably would have got up and had a go with me."

He added that he was asked to leave by the referee but was so worried that when he arrived home he called the leisure centre for news.

Mr Walker was found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm during the incident on May 13 last year.