A TEENAGER who attacked a man who was wearing a Blackburn Rovers shirt has been warned the courts will not tolerate violence.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Ben O'Connor's victim, Mark Hall, suffered a smashed jaw, had to have hospital treatment and was put on a liquid diet.

The defendant, 18, who had told a jury he had been acting in self-defence, had earlier been convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm last August.

Sentencing, Recorder Stephen Davies said O'Connor had clearly had too much to drink. Mr Hall was smaller than O' Connor and had not done anything to justify the violence dished out to him.

The judge told the defendant if it were not for his previous good character he would almost certainly have been facing jail

Recorder Davies went on: "I have decided I can do justice without imposing a custodial sentence. The offence was not premeditated, did not include kicking and appears to have been genuinely out of character."

He added that since last August, O'Connor had kept out of trouble and had had the case hanging over him. The judge said if the defendant was sent to prison, he may well lose his job. But, he went on: "The courts won't allow people like you to get away this sort of behaviour no matter how out of character."

O' Connor had come across Mr Hall at Marios takeaway in Bacup and decided he was "going to have a go."

David Temkin, defending, said O' Connor did not go out looking for trouble that night and the offence was out of character. He expressed remorse.

The defendant, of Waterside Terrace, Bacup, was given 160 hours' community punishment and ordered to pay £1,000 in compensation and costs. He had no previous convictions.