A CLUB-GOER stamped on another man's head and fractured his skull, a court heard yesterday.

Darlington man David Wilkinson was jailed for 18 months after admitting grievous bodily harm at Teesside Crown Court.

The 22-year-old, of Hewitson Road, was described in court as "coldly" stamping on the man's head outside the town's Mardi Gras nightclub.

Judge Les Spittle, who watched a security television video of the incident, said: "When he was lying unconscious and defenceless you coldly and in a calculated way stamped on his head.

"It is fortunate for you that his injuries were not more serious."

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said the incident followed a disagreement in the club and ended with Wilkinson and others attacking the man outside.

He said Wilkinson struck the man about ten times to the head with others kicking him while he was on the ground.

Mr Dodds said that even after bystanders had pulled Wilkinson away from the man he returned and deliberately stamped on his head.

David Lamb, for Wilkinson, said although others had been involved, his client was the only one who had been apprehended for the attack.

He said Wilkinson was a hard-working young man and that the incident was out of character. "He idiotically got involved in a brief period of violence," he said.