A MAN serving time for killing a student with a single punch in March was yesterday found guilty of assaulting a taxi driver four months earlier.

Lloyd Smith, 29, of Corporation Road, Darlington, is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence, imposed in July, for the manslaughter of 22-year-old Lee Walker.

Yesterday, he appeared before South Durham Magistrates' Court to deny allegations of hitting cab driver Thomas Bolan in the face on November 8, last year.

The court was told how Smith had flagged down the ABC taxi in Yarm Road, Darlington, at 3.45am - having been drinking since 7pm - and haggled with the driver for a £3 journey back home.

David Brison, prosecuting, said that Mr Bolan refused to take Smith, at which point the defendant spat at him. He then hit him in the face, breaking his nose and glasses.

Smith told magistrates, sitting in Newton Aycliffe: "The situation got out of hand, we started shouting at each other. I was still trying to blag the situation and he was saying get out, get out."

Callum Terry, in defence, said his client was pushed on the side of the head by Mr Bolan and instinctively swiped back at him across the face in self-defence.

Mr Bolan sent out an emergency call across the radio and colleague Philip Woods quickly arrived at the scene, alerting two police patrol officers on his way.

When PC Mark Beecroft and PC Philip Muir arrested Smith near the railway bridges, on Bank Top, the court heard that he said: "Yeah, I hit him, but he hit me first."

Smith had drunk nine alcopops during the night and admitted that, had he been sober, the assault probably would not have happened.

He told magistrates he saw Mr Bolan the following night while out drinking in Darlington.

"He drove off and then came back and pointed at me. Three taxi drivers then chased us from 2K to Duke's Bar," he said.

Mr Bolan denied the claim, saying he had not driven again for two weeks after the assault.

Magistrates jailed Smith for three months, to run concurrently with his existing sentence.