A FOOTBALL yob who left a rival fan with head injuries from which he may never recover has been jailed for three years and banned from games for six years.

Paul Bennett’s single punch felled Kevin Taylor outside Hartlepool railway station as supporters of Sheffield Wednesday travelled home after a match in the North- East last summer.

Mr Taylor struck his head on the pavement and suffered multiple skull fractures and brain swelling, which has left him needing round-the-clock care in a rehabilitation unit.

Relatives of the 51-year-old – who was in a coma for ten days after being airlifted to hospital, and suffers from unmanageable behaviour and paranoia – say he is a changed man.

Bennett, 24, attacked Mr Taylor and fellow Wednesday fan Stanley Ryman, 47, after their side beat Hartlepool United 5-0 at an early season League One game at Victoria Park.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that Mr Ryman – who, like Mr Taylor was not involved in the postmatch trouble on August 28 – suffered a badly cut and broken nose.

Unemployed Bennett, of St Oswald’s Street, Hartlepool, admitted charges of maliciously wounding Mr Taylor, inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Ryman and affray.

His barrister, Paul Cleasby, said: “He never, ever intended the consequences to be as grave as they have been. It is a single punch with the most regrettable of consequences.”

Bennett’s father, Paul Clark, of Kendal Road, Hartlepool, received a 12-month suspended jail term for his part in the trouble and for driving his son away from the scene.

The court heard that the 46- year-old, who admitted affray and assisting an offender, was one of a number of Hartlepool fans who approached visiting supporters near the train station.

Stuart Hurst, 26, of Riverston Close, and Ashley Harwood, 21, of Oxford Road, both Hartlepool, also admitted affray and received suspended jail terms of six and eight months.

Philip Bailey, 49, of Turnbull Street, and Kieran Readman, 24, of Murray Street, also both Hartlepool, admitted using threatening behaviour and were given community orders.

Barristers for all five said their clients played limited roles in the trouble, were sorry and ashamed for getting involved in what they thought would be just “banter” and shouting.

Jim Withyman, for Clark, said he deserved credit for cradling Mr Taylor’s head and putting him in the recovery position after the assault before he left the scene with the others.

Judge Crowson imposed four-year football banning orders on all the five men, which prohibits them from grounds and an exclusion zone around Victoria Park on match days.

Bennett had five months added to his sentence for breaching a suspended term of imprisonment imposed shortly before the assaults for headbutting his ex-girlfriend after going into her home uninvited.