A SOLDIER was left with a fractured vertebrae in his neck when he was beaten up outside a nightclub, a court heard yesterday.

Christopher Briggs was attacked after becoming involved in an argument with a woman in Stockton town centre in June.

Jonathon Dobbing kicked Mr Briggs in the chest and knocked him against the shutters of a shop next to the Zanzibar nightclub.

The attack was broken up, but it continued at a nearby taxi rank where the victim was kicked twice in the head as he bent over.

Police called to the scene in the early hours of June 13 saw Dobbing delivering repeated punches while holding Mr Briggs.

The squaddie suffered damage to three of his teeth as well as the neck injury, which was detected by an x-ray and CT scans.

Dobbing, of Whitley Road, Thornaby, near Stockton, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and was given a suspended prison sentence.

The 22-year-old was also ordered to pay £500 compensation and carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work.

At Teesside Crown Court, Judge Peter Armstrong also imposed supervision which will run during the two-year suspension period.

He told Dobbing he was able to suspend the eight-month sentence because the attack was out of character and possibly provoked.

The court was told that Mr Briggs followed Dobbing to the taxi rank after the initial confrontation had been split up by door staff.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said the part-time plasterer’s mate had tried to contact his victim through police to apologise to him.

“There was no intention on behalf of Jonathon Dobbing to inflict such an injury,” said Mr McReddie. “It was caused recklessly.

“He accepts that behaving in this way he has gone over the top. He understands it is wrong and understands why it is wrong.”

The court heard that fatherof- two Dobbing has reduced his alcohol intake since the incident and has not been out socially.

Three character references were given to the judge, which described him as hard-working, reliable and willing to help others.

Mr McReddie said: “He accepts fully that what he did was wrong. It is legally, morally and socially unacceptable to behave in that way.”