Reveller jailed for motiveless double attack outside Hartlepool bar that left victim with fractured skull

Watson Foster, 25, punched the victim in separate incidents ten minutes apart in the early hours of the morning outside Jax bar in Hartlepool town centre.

The ‘stocky’ man was left with bleeding on the brain, an extensive skull fracture and is no longer the same person, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Foster punched the victim outside the bar on Stockton Street knocking him to the ground before going back inside.

Around 10 minutes later Foster punched him again after the victim left and returned to the bar.

The man spent 48 hours in hospital undergoing scans and was kept under close observation before being allowed home.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said: “The crown say it’s a serious injury. There’s an ongoing effect upon the victim.”

Reading an impact statement from the victim's wife, Mr Hadfield added: “His wife says he has been a different man since it happened.

“Now he finds life frustrating. He can’t remember people’s names that he would have remembered before quite easily.”

His sense of taste and smell has been affected, he has been told not to drive and is still off work.

Foster, of Allerton Close, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on March 7 this year.

He was on a suspended prison sentence at the time for an assault on his pregnant partner.

Stephen Constantine, defending, said in mitigation Foster's behaviour was ‘extraordinary’ adding: “It’s something which effectively occurred out of nothing.”

Addressing the second attack he said his client wrongly assumed the victim was waiting for him when he left the bar to go home.

Foster apologised through Mr Constantine to the victim for his behaviour and the injuries he caused.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Paul Watson told Foster: “It’s easy to see how those injuries could have been much more serious and even fatal.

“As it is they have had long-lasting effects on [the victim] and it seems some of those effects may be permanent.”

Foster was jailed for 26 months.

Related: Teenager due in court after boy stabbed in Hartlepool

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