A thug who travelled from his home in Scotland to Merseyside after his elderly father-in-law was assaulted ended up leaving an innocent man with brain injuries.
John Daly grabbed Andrew Noblett from behind, hurled him to the floor and while he lay unconscious and helpless twice stamped on his face and chest.
Dad-of-four Daly, 39, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm. He denied a more serious charge of intending to cause such injury but a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found him guilty and he has been jailed for 10 years.
The court heard his partner’s dad had been assaulted by two men in the Springfield pub in St Helens last November 23 and the next day Daly and his partner travelled from Dumfries to speak to them.
That evening, Andrew was in the pub and the two men who beat up the father-in-law told him about the fight. He was still sitting with them when Daly came in to speak to them.
Sarah Griffin, prosecuting, said that it appeared everyone put the incident behind them and Andrew and the defendant, an IT consultant, discussed computers.
Some time later he was approached while in the toilets by Daly and there was an altercation. Afterwards, Daly held the door open for Andrew to leave, which he did, but Daly followed him and attacked him.
Dad-of-one Andrew suffered a fractured skull, a fractured cheekbone and bruising to his brain and was off work for 10 weeks and had to give up his job and accrued debts. He now has panic attacks in crowds.
