THINGS went from bad to worse for a 40-year-old Accrington man who set out for a quiet night out in Oswaldtwistle.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Paul James Welsh was punched in the eye during an unprovoked attack.

He took a taxi to hospital and while he was waiting for treatment was punched in the same eye by the man sitting next to him.

When he later saw the same man on the hospital corridor and remonstrated with him , Welsh who was arrested by police there to deal with a completely separate incident.

Welsh, of Fern Gore Avenue, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to using threatening behaviour.

He was given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £55 costs after defence solicitor Andrew Church-Taylor urged the magistrates to take into account the mitigating circumstances and accept Welsh's sincere apologies.

"It just was not his night," said Mr Church-Taylor whose client had no previous convictions.

"He went out for a quiet drink in Oswaldtwistle town centre and had achieved just that until late in the evening when he was attacked for no apparent reason by another man.

"My client was punched in the eye and it was suggested he should get his injuries attended to at the hospital," said Mr Church-Taylor.

"Not wanting to trouble the ambulance service "He took a taxi to the casualty department at Blackburn Royal Infirmary and got into a conversation with the man sitting next to him who appeared to have a head injury.

"They were having a reasonable conversation until suddenly and for the second time that night he was punched in the same eye," said Mr Church-Taylor.

The second assailant moved to another part of the waiting area but shortly after the two met on the corridor.

"My client accepts that he went for the other man but, unfortunately for him, the police were there dealing with another matter and he was arrested and taken to the police station," said Mr Church-Taylor.

"Having had the misfortune to be attacked twice in one night my client, who had never troubled the police in his life before, found himself arrested and placed in a cell."

Imposing a conditional discharge, the chairman said the magistrates accepted that Welsh had been the subject of two unprovoked attacks.