A FORMER soldier who beat a landlord unconscious after being ejected from his pub has been jailed.

Dean Anthony Rowell attacked publican Charles Anthony Storey when he was thrown out of The Travellers' Rest, in Crook, County Durham, for being disruptive and argumentative.

Rowell, 23, of Fairfield, in Sunnybrow, near Crook, pulled Mr Storey outside where both men fell to the ground.

He then kicked Mr Storey in the head at least twice and punched him as he lay unconscious on the ground.

He then assaulted customer Alan Christopher Myers who stepped in to assist the landlord.

Rowell pleaded guilty to wounding Mr Storey and to common assault against Mr Myers when he appeared at Durham Crown Court.

Annelise Haughstad, mitigating, said Rowell had suffered dyspraxia all his life and that since the incident, on December 9 last year, he felt his life was over because he can never return to the Army.

Judge Richard Lowden told Rowell his behaviour had been "dreadful and boorish" and that the "extreme violence" he used made a prison sentence inevitable.

He was sentenced to three years in custody.