A former soldier who boxed while in the Army knocked a man unconscious and broke his jaw after snorting cocaine and drinking 20 bottles of lager.
Leslie Cotgreave, 40, admitted the attack outside Genting Casino in Birkenhead but was spared jail when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court.
The court heard his victim needed surgery to insert a metal plate in his jaw and may never regain feeling there because a nerve had to be cut by doctors.
Cotgreave, of Oak Bank, Birkenhead, has past convictions for affrays and assaults causing actual bodily harm.
But Judge Denis Watson, QC, said he was prepared to give the ex-squaddie “a last chance”.
Simon Duncan, prosecuting, said the victim went to the casino in Oxton Road with a friend on January 11 this year.
They spent the night drinking and gambling and called a taxi to take them home at around 2am.
But the victim remembered nothing after going outside and waking up in Arrowe Park Hospital.
CCTV showed the victim pass a group of four men including Cotgreave and start talking to the defendant.
Mr Duncan said: “He was stumbling and swaying as he did so.
“Without warning the defendant threw a single punch, knocking him to the ground and out cold. He had no opportunity to defend himself.”
The victim’s friend called an ambulance and Cotgreave fled the scene.
However, he had signed up for membership of the casino earlier that night and had his photograph taken.
Police tracked him down to a bar in Argyle Street, Birkenhead at around 3.45am.
When arrested he said: “Is this about the little c*** who was giving me loads inside?”
He added: “You’ve seen the CCTV, you’ve seen him come up to me getting in my face.”
Cotgreave described himself as “10 out of 10” on a scale of drunkenness.
Liverpool Crown and Magistrates’ Court
Officers said he “recoiled” when shown footage of the punch.
Mr Duncan said: “He said he was trained in the art of boxing, having fought for the Army and in national championships. He said he had the requisite technique to deliver a good punch.
“He said he was sorry for what he had done and hoped the victim would be okay.”
The victim also suffered a 3cm cut to the back of his head and was given medication for dizzy spells and memory loss.
Cotgreave, with a shaved head and wearing a grey suit in the dock, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.
John Ballam, defending, said the dad-of-three was “sickened” by what he had done.
He said: “He can give no explanation for it whatsoever.”
Mr Ballam said his client had not been out drinking since.
Judge Watson said Cotgreave had avoided jail “by the skin of his teeth”.
He said: “Once again you are to be sentenced for an offence of violence, in this case violence causing a serious injury to someone who had caused the minimum of irritation.
“It seems to me your short temper is one which become so short when you have drink that you are liable to be violent again and again.
“You delivered a heavy blow and then danced away in the manner of a boxer light on his feet, leaving him motionless – dead to the world for all intents and purposes – unconcious on the ground.
“This is what I regard a last chance and at your age you have got a real decision to make. No-one can stop you drinking, only you.”
The judge gave Cotgreave 14 months in prison, suspended for two years, a six-month alcohol treatment programme and 100 hours of unpaid work.
He also told him to pay his victim £1,200 in compensation.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/