South Yorkshire man kicked drunken reveller in the face during town centre attack
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Nicholas Kozak attacked the man at around 2am on January 24 on Wellington Street in Barnsley, said prosecutor Amy Earnshaw.
He punched him repeatedly in the head and knocked him to the ground, before returning to kick him in the face, leaving him unconscious.
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Hide AdPolice arrived to find Kozak's victim bleeding and he was taken to Barnsley General Hospital, where he was treated for bruising and relatively minor injuries.
In a statement he said: "I feel if I had put up a fight I would have been killed by these men."
Kozak apologised to police for wasting their time, Ms Earnshaw said, but claimed the man had tried to sexually assault his female friend in the nightclub.
James Gould, mitigating, said Kovak, who hopes to join the Navy and has no previous convictions, was immediately remorseful and entered an early guilty plea.
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Hide AdThe court heard his victim had been drinking since 3.30pm the previous day and was making a "thorough nuisance" of himself in the club. He initiated the fight by shoving Kovac.
Kozak, aged 20, of Newbridge Grove, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Judge Roger Thomas QC told him: "There was a time when if someone was knocked to the ground and the boot was put in, they would be sent down.
"Cases like this end up with people dying. I am not being silly or dramatic. Drunken violence outside pubs and nightclubs - there's just too much of it."
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Hide AdBut he added: “There's quite a lot to be said for your position. All this began when the victim was being a nuisance in the nightclub. Your reaction was to go outside and it escalates, of course it does. He was hardly likely to say sorry.
"Your card is marked now - you have a criminal record. Next time around you're not going to be looked at as a decent person without convictions."
He handed him a 12-month community order with a six-week curfew from 7pm to 7am, and ordered him to pay £500 in compensation.