A MAN needs reconstructive surgery following a violent attack at a town centre taxi rank.

Raymond Kirkham was punched so hard in the face that he was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground in Leigh town centre.

His attacker, 25-year-old Stephen Topping, was jailed for 15 months after admitting the unprovoked assault.

At Bolton Crown Court Topping claimed he had been knocked unconscious minutes before but could give no reason why he attacked his victim, whom he knew.

Judge Elliott Knopf said society had to be protected from drunken thugs who went around hitting innocent people in unprovoked attacks.

Topping, of Heather Grove, Leigh, admitted wounding the victim last November.

Prosecutor Ciaran Rankin said Mr Kirkham had been out in Leigh town centre before ending up at Toffs nightclub. At around 2am Mr Kirkham and a female were standing at a taxi rank when Topping appeared.

According to the woman witness Topping just ran at her companion and hit him once in the face knocking him unconscious. He lost several teeth and suffered two jaw fractures.

When arrested Topping said he remembered hitting someone once, but said his memory was poor.

Zoe Nield, defending, said Topping's mother had died two months before the attack and that he had been drinking. He now had an offer of work in a sandwich shop.

Judge Knopf said: "This was a serious unprovoked attack by a drunken thug on an innocent party."