A BLOW struck in anger during a nightclub confrontation has landed a young man behind bars for 30 months.

Darren Longstaff, 23, was yesterday convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, after Durham Crown Court heard how a single punch broke the jaw of Michael Oliver.

Longstaff, of Windsor Terrace, New Kyo, Stanley, who denied the charges, was cleared of the more serious offence of wounding with intent, but found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm by a jury after a two-day trial.

The incident took place in the Bizness nightclub, in Front Street, Consett, County Durham, in June last year.

The court heard that Longstaff exchanged words with Mr Oliver earlier in the Wheatsheaf pub, and then in the nightclub, over an allegation that he had deliberately snubbed a mutual friend the previous evening.

Mr Oliver told the court he was struck a blow to the side of the face, and knocked unconscious. He needed plates and pins inserting to repair the damage.

Longstaff admitted he was in the nightclub and was thrown out at around midnight by door staff, but he denied responsibility for the punch.

After his conviction, the court heard the attack happened only six weeks after he received a 15-month suspended prison sentence for his part in an incident of violent disorder, in which a man was kicked, punched and stabbed in Front Street, Stanley.

Judge Gerald Harkins passed a 15-month prison sentence and activated the 15-month suspended sentence.