Wolverhampton pub attacker spared jail after spotting himself on Crimewatch
A man who handed himself in to police following a Crimewatch appeal after punching a fellow drinker at a pub has been spared jail.
Russell Green delivered the "stay away gesture" to the victim in Wolverhampton city centre's Giffard Arms during the early hours of November 25 2016, a judge heard.
The victim, who had been drinking and dancing on a leaving do with work colleagues, was struck once in the face by the 31-year-old defendant, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
"Everything had been perfectly friendly after Green and an acquaintance arrived at the pub until something changed his perception of Mr Richardson-Hughes," said Mr Andrew Tucker, prosecuting, who continued: "The defendant believed he had made sly comments regarding the way he was behaving with some of the younger women."
The man was sitting down when Green walked up and delivered the single blow before being ejected from the pub but the victim shrugged off the incident until he started to feel unwell after returning home.
He went to hospital to discover that an eye socket had been fractured and underwent an operation during which three metal plates were inserted into his face.
Green phoned police on July 4 2017 after a Crimewatch Roadshow appeal for information about the incident. He told officers he had lost control and had hit the man in a "stay away gesture."
The defendant, who had no previous convictions and represented himself, told the court: "I can't remember much of what happened but it was disgusting behaviour and I am not going to deny what I did."
He added that he was now a changed man after forming a relationship with a woman who has given birth to his child and is expecting another.
Green, from Walford Avenue, Bradmore, explained: "This has had a good, positive effect on me. I drink a lot less than before, am working and supporting a family.
"I no longer have the mental issues I once suffered from and am no longer taking medication."
He pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 150 hours of unpaid work and £200 costs.
Judge Rhona Campbell told him: "This was an unprovoked attack on a man who was simply enjoying himself with work colleagues.
"You volunteered yourself after the Crimewatch appeal and life is far better for you now that it was then. You are alert and alive to the role your drinking played in what happened."