A FOOTBALL hooligan has been banned from attending matches for three years after hi-tech CCTV footage helped convict him of common assault on a club steward.

Gary Martin pleaded guilty to throwing a plastic bottle after the end of the Middlesbrough v Sunderland derby match on April 26 this year.

The Middlesbrough supporting 29-year-old, of Mastiles Close, Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, could clearly be seen throwing a bottle towards opposing fans but it was German technology that helped secure his conviction for assault.

Teesside Magistrates Court was shown video footage that traced the trajectory of the bottle which hit the steward on the arm like a 'metal bar'.

Christopher Patzelt, a safety officer at Middlesbrough Football Club, told the court that he was able to trace the missile, that hit senior steward, back to the 'perpetrator'.

Amanda McGowan, who is a senior steward at the club, suffered bruising to her arm when she was hit by the plastic bottle.

"As I was trying to usher fans out of the stand, I felt a large crack on my forearm – it felt like I had been hit by a metal bar," she said. "As I looked down I saw a mostly-full bottle on the ground and it rolled down the stairs."

The victim said she suffered pins and needles in her arm for more than 24 hrs as well as numbness to her hand for several hours.

Under cross examination from Martin's solicitor, Andrew Coleman, Ms McGowan accepted that she could could not be 100 per cent certain that it was that bottle that hit her as she was concentrating on getting the Sunderland fans out of the stadium but said it was the only item in her vicinity at the time.

Following his conviction, Martin's solicitor told magistrates that it was a 'moment of madness' that would leave a 'scar on his character' for the rest of his life and pleaded with magistrates not to impose the ban.

As well as the football banning order, the engineer was fined £550 for throwing a missile at spectators, £825 for common assault, ordered to pay £620 in court costs, victim surcharge of £82.50 and £150 compensation.