A MAN who fractured the skull of another pub-goer walked free from court after a judge heard how the victim had been "aggressive and foul-mouthed".

Richard Lonsdale caused the injury with a single punch when the pair clashed outside The Keys on the High Street in Yarm, near Stockton, last summer.

The victim spent seven days in hospital being treated for the fracture to the base of his skull and a bleed on the brain, Teesside Crown Court heard on Friday.

In a statement given to police, the man said he remembered going for a cigarette between 1am and 2am, and recalled nothing more until waking up in hospital.

Even prosecution witnesses said he had been abusive and aggressive while Lonsdale and a group of friends searched for a woman's keys and mobile phone.

Judge Sean Morris said many defendants in Lonsdale's position might have pleaded not guilty and been acquitted by a jury - and praised his honesty.

But the judge told him: "Just be careful, because the injury this man had, he could have died. That kind of injury has a name in the medical profession - it's called thief of the night. People go to sleep perfectly normally, then at three o'clock in the morning they pass away."

Lonsdale, of Grassington Green, in nearby Ingleby Barwick, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Judge Morris told him: "I don't think it is in the public interest for you to go away immediately.

"It is very rare I let anybody walk out of that door when they have been convicted of a serious offence.

"Ordinarily, any fighting in the public streets, especially in pubs, in my book means that people go away, and it's important that the public understand why you are not going away today.

"First and foremost, you were not aggressive that night. Secondly, you were trying to prevent a drunken individual, who was being foul-mouthed and abusive to a distressed young girl.

"Thirdly, the prosecution witnesses state he came up to you aggressively and you punched him once.

"You did not carry on punching him, you did not kick him when he was down. If you had done any of those things, you would have been going away to prison."

John Nixon, mitigating, said Lonsdale accepted he had lost his temper, and revealed he is now barred from all licensed premises in Yarm and Stockton.