A teacher headbutted a teenage boy and told him to "shut the f*** up" in a shocking attack.
Craig Embrey, 31, left the 16-year-old, who attends a special school, with a split lip which needed three stitches.
Embrey got into a row with two teenagers who were on their way back from a house party which was taking place on his street.
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Louise Santamera, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that just after 8pm on January 18 last year the victim and a friend planned to go to a house party in Greenfinch Grove, Warrington, but seeing the size of the group in and around the house they changed their minds.
Ms Santamera said: “They were singing as they left but suddenly found themselves confronted by the defendant who appeared to be angry. He told them to ‘shut the f….up’.”
The boys told him to "cool it" and said they were leaving but he head butted one of them.
The police, who Embrey had called earlier, were quickly on the scene. An officer spoke to Embrey who said the boys had sworn at him and he felt frightened.
He gave the officers his name but then ran off and they lost him. However after he went home his partner rang the police and they came round to speak to him.
When interviewed he said there had been a large group congregating near his home and he was alarmed as he thought a relative of his partner’s might be among them.
He went out to find her and on his way back encountered the two youths who were “singing and swearing at the top of their voices and he told them to shut up”.
He also told them there were children sleeping and they had set his dogs off barking.
He claimed the boy he assaulted had threatened do "do him in" and that one of them had "approached him at speed one with his arms raised as if to strike him".
Embrey said he panicked and reacted by headbutting him but denied intending to injure him and expressed remorse, said Ms Santamera.
When the secondary school where Embrey taught learnt of the incident he was told his position was “untenable” and he could no longer work in the profession.
A judge said that he accepted that the 31-year-old “had genuinely but mistakenly misjudged the situation” and thought he was about to be attacked.
Judge Gary Woodhall said: “You were not about to be attacked. They were in no way to blame. As you approached you told the boys to ‘f… off’ and committed the assault. The level of force used was on any view excessive.
“You continued to deny intending to cause any harm . I conclude that is unrealistic, if you head butt someone in the face must have intended some harm. A probation officer says it was a highly compulsive offence and an isolated incident which I accept.”
Embrey, of Greenfinch Grove, Warrington, pleaded guilty to assault causing actual bodily harm. He was ordered to pay his victim £900 compensation and the judge also imposed a community order for nine months.
The defendant, whose heavily pregnant partner was in the public gallery, was also ordered to carry out 10 days rehabilitation activities and 90 hours unpaid work.
The judge ordered Embrey, who now works in the pharmaceutical industry, to pay £300 prosecution costs and told him that they and the compensation must be paid at £100 a month.
Michael Davies, defending, said that Embrey, who has no previous convictions, had lost his job as a result of the incident. He had been told he would not be able to continue even if he was acquitted of the offence.
He has now obtained employment with a pharmaceutical company and both he and his partner work but she is due to give birth to their first child in two weeks time.
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