A FATHER-OF-SEVEN who kicked his neighbour’s front door down and punched him in the face after a drinking session to celebrate his birthday has escaped prison.

Paul Thomas, of Brynmawr, had been out celebrating and watching Wales’s defeat to Ireland in the Six Nations when he launched an unprovoked attack on Neil Austin on his doorstep.

Newport Crown Court heard how the defendant terrified the victim’s family after he had been in a fight with his eldest son on Saturday, February 24.

Prosecutor Steven Donoghue said Thomas, 37, was in the Wine Vaults pub in Brynmawr when he was left with two black eyes after an “altercation” with Macaulay Austin.

Later, upon hearing a false rumour that his father Neil Austin was “after him”, the defendant turned up at his house on the Gurnos Estate with a friend after he had decided to “have it out with him”.

He battered away at the front door before it eventually caved in and attacked “an oblivious” Mr Austin on his doorstep, causing him to fall back and break bones in his vertebrae as well as inflicting a cut to his mouth.

The victim’s younger 14-year-old son had been downstairs playing computer games as the uproar unfolded, Mr Donoghue added.

Thomas, of Heol Derw, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage.

Claire Pickthall, mitigating, said her client had only been in trouble with the courts on one previous occasion when he was convicted of criminal damage in 2001.

She said: “He is utterly ashamed of his actions and is very scared to be appearing before a criminal court for only the second time in his life”.

The judge, Recorder Nicholas Gareth Jones, reminded his barrister that Thomas had received a caution for common assault in 2016.

Miss Pickthall added that the defendant was the father of seven children, aged between seven and 18, and was the “main breadwinner” for his family,

She said: “His temper got the better of him and he bitterly regrets it.

“His actions have upset his family and they are scared of what will happen to him.

“He is utterly terrified at the position he has put them in.”

The judge imposed an eight-month jail sentence, which he suspended for a term of 12 months.

Thomas must also carry out a community order of 100 hours unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge of £140.