AN AMATEUR boxer had his hopes of competing in the Welsh Championships ruined after as “cowardly” attack in a pub left him with a double jaw fracture, a court heard.

Tyrone Price, 19, punched Luke Gethin from behind in the New Griffin pub in Brynmawr, prosecutor John Warren told Newport Crown Court.

He said Mr Gethin had been out for a drive with friends on September 10, 2010, when the group got a phonecall telling them another friend had been in a dispute at a pub and needed picking up.

When they arrived in the early hours of September 11, Mr Gethin went into the pub.

Once inside, Price, of Institution Terrace, Ebbw Vale, approached him from his right and hit him in the side of the face.

He was later identified by a number of witnesses by the star tattoo he has on his face.

Mr Gethin went to Abergavenny’s Nevill Hall Hospital at around 8.30am on September 11 followed by Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital three days later.

An x-ray revealed a double fracture in his jaw.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, Mr Gethin said as an amateur boxer, he was working his way towards competing in the Welsh Championships at the time of the attack.

He said: "All hopes of competing were dashed as I could not take part in training and have been unable to box ever since."

Defending, Jeff Jones said his client admitted his guilt and the pre-sentence report highlighted positive steps being made by Price who is attending weekly supervised meetings with his young son.

Sentencing Price, who admitted one count of GBH, judge David Morris described the punch as "a cowardly attack from behind."

Price was jailed for 46 weeks, suspended for 18 months, given an 18-month suspended sentence supervision order, has to take part in an education training programme, ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and has to pay £500 compensation to Mr Gethin.