TWO servicemen involved in a violent street brawl are awaiting sentence.
Darren Storey, who admitted hitting victim Andrew Williams, and Ashley Firth, said to have kicked him, were each convicted of one allegation of assault by a Burnley Crown Court jury after a four-day trial.
Storey, 22, an airframe technician in the RAF, was cleared of a further assault charge involving kicking the complainant. The defendant, of Sycamore Avenue, Barnoldswick, had denied the allegations against him.
Co-defendant Ashley Firth, also 22, a diver in the Royal Navy and now living in Porstmouth, had also pleaded not guilty. Both were bailed until October 9 for pre-sentence reports.
The jury had been told how Mr Williams was alleged to have been kicked in the head by both defendants and another man as he lay on the ground. The third man was said to have repeatedly put the boot in.
Mr Williams had been knocked unconscious after violence erupted at the Craven Heifer pub, in Kelbrook, in December last year.
The court heard Storey told police he had been grabbed and pushed to the floor. As he got up and the man went to grab him again, he "knocked him clean out". Firth admitted he had been very drunk and could not remember what happened.
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