A MAN who launched a "shocking" attack on another late-night reveller was yesterday jailed for eight months.

David O'Hare was told by a judge that it was "something of a miracle" that his victim, Graham Watson, was not seriously injured.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage played to the court showed O'Hare, 24, kick and stamp on the other man's head at least seven times as he lay helpless on the ground.

Mr Watson suffered bruising over his left eye, grazes to his forehead and a swollen ear in the attack in the early hours of December 19 last year.

Timothy Bubb, prosecuting, said Mr Watson had been drinking with friends in Middlesbrough and ended up at a nightclub in South Bank when he got split up from his group.

He could not get a taxi so started to walk home along Normanby Road. He remembers nothing after ducking to avoid contact with a group of three people who started to chase him, until he woke up in hospital.

Defence barrister John Gillette said O'Hare got involved in the fracas after Mr Watson had argued with his 19-year-old cousin and his brother.

Mr Gillette said: "The video is shocking and no one is more shocked by it than the defendant.

"He just can't imagine that he would conduct himself in that way in the middle of a public street or, indeed, anywhere else."

O'Hare, of Holdenby Drive, Park End, Middlesbrough, admitted a charge of causing grievous bodily harm at Teesside Crown Court.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: "CCTV footage shows you in what you accept was an extremely shocking way - running and kicking and stamping on his head, jumping up and down.

"It is something of a miracle he wasn't seriously injured by behaviour like that.

"He was out cold in the road when you were doing that to him.

"It is completely out of character for you. You must simply have lost your temper when drunk, but I'm afraid that is no mitigation.

"Having seen the evidence, there is no way of avoiding a custodial sentence. It is so serious only custody can be justified for it."