A MAN who broke another's jaw with a punch escaped the prison sentence he feared yesterday.
Instead, Benjamin Cooper was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work and to pay his victim £400 compensation, plus costs of £350.
Cooper, 22, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Robert Paxton after denying the charge, which arose out of an incident in a Harrogate nightclub while Cooper was out with his girlfriend and another man.
In mitigation, Geoffrey Boothby, said there had been some provocation with Mr Paxton, who had drunk nine pints of lager, not entirely blameless.
It had been a sorry incident which had left Cooper, of Park Road, Harrogate, worried about the outcome.
"The fear of prison gates looming has been very worrying," said Mr Boothby.
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