Boxing coach avoids jail for GBH in Burnham bar (From This is The West Country)

Boxing coach avoids jail for GBH in Burnham bar

10:30am Thursday 18th October 2012 in News By Newsdesk

A BOXING coach who hospitalised a man for two and a half days with a single punch during a bar brawl has walked free from court.

Christopher Edwards, 27, left Chris Rex needing metal plates and screws in his jaw following the attack in Burnham’s Skye Bar.

Edwards, of Highbridge Quay, admitted grievous bodily harm and was given a 12-month suspended jail sentence and a four-month curfew when he appeared at Taunton Crown Court.

Prosecuting, William Hunter told the court Edwards, a former military serviceman, went into the popular bar on June 9 to ‘teach Mr Rex a lesson’.

He said: “At around midnight Mr Rex went outside for a cigarette and CCTV images show the defendant punch him to the face.

“The victim fell to the floor and as a result was in hospital for two and a half days with a fractured jaw.”

Mr Hunter said Edwards had deliberately sought Mr Rex because of an altercation involving his ex-partner.

The attack has left Mr Rex with severe pain in his face and the injuries were so serious he needed to have plates inserted to keep his jaw in place.

Rebecca Bradbury, defending, said: “He admitted it from the outset. He can’t explain why he acted as he did. “He suffered a knee injury and was medically discharged from the Army. “It has resulted in depression.”

Sentencing father-of-three Edwards last week, Judge Graham Hume Jones said he should have known how to control his violence given his previous line of work.

“This was a pre-meditated attack,” he added.

“We cannot have people going around taking the law into their own hands.

“You were in the Army and you are a boxing coach so you should know perfectly well that you should control violence.”