THE former headboy of a prestigious school attacked a fellow pupil and sent her tumbling down the stairs because she was "too confident", she said outside court yesterday.

Talented pupil Jonathon Noble, 18, was ordered to pay his victim £1,000 and serve a 60-hour community punishment after he was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

He broke fellow A-level student Gillian Weatherstone's arm in two places at a house party during their exams this summer.

While he went on to secure the grades he needed to gain a place at Cambridge University, she did not get the results she wanted and is retaking her A-levels next month.

At a previous hearing Noble, of Lyndhurst Court, Low Fell, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to assault, after denying grievous bodily harm.

He was headboy of Emmanuel College, Gateshead, which has a strong Christian ethos and is known as one of the best schools in Tyneside.

Tim Parkin, prosecuting, said Noble told police he had not meant to push Miss Weatherstone down the stairs and merely wanted to scare her. The defendant could not explain what had caused him to attack his fellow pupil.

Christopher Knox, for the defendant, said the court proceedings had affected his client badly and had a serious impact on his first term at university.

Judge Tim Hewitt ordered Noble to compensate Miss Weatherstone and pay £400 costs.

He told the defendant yesterday: ''It seems to me in all these circumstances it would be wholly disproportionate to impose a custodial sentence for this, your first and probably only brush with the criminal law, not withstanding the seriousness of the injury you did to Gillian."

After the case Miss Weatherstone said she had not expected a jail term but thought it would have been "just".

She could not explain why she was attacked, but branded Noble "a strange lad" who did not have the full social life she enjoyed at school.

She said: ''He was very into his work and that cut him off in a lot of ways. I think he thought I was too loud and too confident at the party."