A BRAVE barmaid tackled a violent drunk and held him until police arrived to arrest him for an assault, a court was told yesterday.

Roxanne Chisholm stepped in when Kevin Shaw, 31, punched and kicked Matthew Martin outside The Standard in Redcar High Street.

Mr Martin suffered a suspected broken nose and black eyes, prosecutor Richard Parsell told Teesside Crown Court.

Ms Chisholm told police later that Shaw and his friends had been making a nuisance of themselves on the night of January 5, taking drinks outside.

She saw Mr Martin fall backwards, and Shaw with his arm pulled back as though he had just punched him.

Shaw then kicked him in the head, at which point she took hold of him.

Shaw, who was being treated for psychiatric problems, told her: "They can't do anything anyway because I've just come out of St Luke's (psychiatric hospital)."

She restrained him until police arrived. Mr Martin, who had gone outside for a cigarette, woke in The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough.

He did not require any follow-up treatment, and he did not wish to make a victim impact statement, said Mr Parsell.

When Shaw was interviewed, he said he was extremely drunk, and he admitted the offence.

He had previous convictions for criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly.

Michael Bosomworth, defending, said Shaw had no violence on his record.

He had failed to take his medication, but was now back under close supervision in the community.

He said Shaw had started a college course in bricklaying and was also doing useful work with a gardening group.

Judge Howard Crowson told him: "You could easily go to prison if something like this happened again. Prison would be a bad place for you, and I take the view that the person who behaved in this way is not the person you are now.

"It's not much comfort to the man who was hurt, but he seems to have managed to put it behind him."

Shaw, of Prospect Place, Skelton, was given a 12month community order with supervision after he pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm assault.