A TRAINED boxer and another man have been given community sentences after being convicted of assault charges.

Christopher Crook was ordered to carry out 200 hours' community service while Brendon Cordey was given two years' probation.

Judge Barbara Watson told the men it had been a serious and sustained incident as she passed sentence at Preston Crown Court.

Crook, 28, of Parkinson Street, Haslingden, and 23-year-old Cordey, of Hardman Avenue, Rawtenstall, had been convicted by a jury of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. Crook alone was also found guilty of a second actual bodily harm assault charge.

A trial had heard evidence that people were in a Waterfoot pizza place when Crook was said to have been aggressive towards a male. It was over someone having been sent to prison.

A friend was then attacked and then another person who intervened was punched and a tooth knocked out. The incident occurred in September 1999. Mr Jeremy Grout-Smith, for Crook, said the injuries had been of a soft tissue nature. There had been a sense of injustice over a conviction.

Crook was described as a professional boxer by training. "That means his use of violence is very much normally within his control," said Mr Grout-Smith.

The defendant was a self-employed bricklayer who would miss out on two to three contracts if sent to prison. "He could do very valuable service to the community with his skills."

Mr Gavin McBride, for Cordey, told the court it had not been Cordey's fight. However, he stupidly got involved. "The effect of alcohol on him at that time was perhaps the main instigator behind these offences."

The judge said she accepted there had not been repeated kicking by either defendant. The men had been punched. She added: "I regard it as a complete tragedy that two men like yourselves should be standing here for sentence.

"I am persuaded by what has been said on your behalf and by my own observations during the trial that I can pass non-custodial sentences."