A YOUNG man launched an attack on a fellow reveller as they waited for buses following a night out drinking in a city centre, a court heard yesterday.

Terry Stavers was among a group who went to Durham bus station after visiting several city pubs on June 24 last year.

Durham Crown Court was told he approached another young man, who had also been drinking with friends.

Stavers punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground, before walking off and boarding a bus. The victim suffered cuts, grazes and bruising, mostly to the head.

Police were called and witnesses pointed out Stavers.

Stavers, 20, of Quarryhouse Gardens, East Rainton, near Houghton-le-Spring, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, on the basis that he acted in self defence following an argument over two girls.

Ron Mitchell, mitigating, described it as, "self-defence gone too far".

Imposing the maximum 240 hours community punishment order, Recorder John Muir told Stavers he had missed a custodial sentence, "by a whisker".