Bassetlaw man knocked drinker out, beat him while unconscious and left him bleeding

Lewis Oxley was chatting with his victim in the Hideaway bar, on Bridgegate, Retford, when CCTV recorded him punching the man in the face at 1am, on February 6.

Prosecutor Daniel Scothern said people were screaming as Oxley hit the unconscious man two more times, leaving him with blood all over the left side of his face.

His victim’s eye socket was fractured, one tooth was knocked out and three teeth were chipped. He was due to have spinal surgery and the attack aggravated his pain.

“Over a year later he still looks over his shoulder and is nervous about going out,” said Mr Scothern. “It plays upon his mind.”

He was off work for four weeks and although he has improved physically the incident still affects him mentally.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Oxley, aged 39, has 13 previous convictions for 18 offences, including affray from 2013. At the time he was serving a community order imposed for harassment.

Benn Robinson, mitigating, said the HGV driver and father-of-three hasn’t offended or touched a drop of alcohol since.

On Wedesday, Judge Steven Coupland told him: “The court is sick and tired of people who get involved in drunken night-time violence.

“There was no excuse for you to behave in the way you chose to. Worse than what you did was what you did afterwards. You ran off and left him lying there, bleeding.

“You have set a very poor example for your children,” the judge told him. “You richly deserve prison but it would punish other people.”

But he said a probation report painted a very different picture of Oxley as “a valued worker, a good dad, and a good friend to other people.”

Oxley, of Tunnel Road, Retford, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on May 23.

He received a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, with a 31-day programme, 100 hours of unpaid work and a 60 day alcohol-abstinence monitoring programme.

He was ordered to pay his victim compensation of £800.