A MAN broke his victim’s jaw with a single punch during an unprovoked attack in a nightclub because he had spoken to his fiancée.

Hayden Stephenson, 29, from Newport launched the drunken and brutal assault on Samuel Hancox at the city’s Breeze club.

Prosecutor Julia Cox said he had hit him after he’d chatted to the defendant’s partner Heather Yearsley who he knew from school.

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Stephenson and his fiancée were in Breeze to celebrate their engagement and Mr Hancox was punched after she’d just shown him her ring.

The blow fractured his jaw in two places and he needed surgery leaving him with metal plates permanently inserted in his face.

“The victim says the attack was completely unprovoked and that he wasn’t responsible in any way,” Miss Cox told Newport Crown Court.

“He fears for his safety in Newport and has not been to a nightclub since.

“Mr Hancox feels anxious he will come across Mr Stephenson again.”

The defendant, of Darwin Drive, had initially claimed he had acted in self-defence before he pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The offence took place on November 20, 2021.

Stephenson had a previous conviction for a public order offence seven years ago.

The court heard that the defendant ran a scaffolding firm employing six people and did a lot of work for charity.

Gareth Williams, representing him, said: “There is a very different side to him.

“He’s hard-working, conscientious and a good father to his four children.

“There is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation and he understands what he’s done is wrong.”

The judge, Recorder Sean Bradley, told Stephenson: “It seems to me you have a problem with alcohol and you were drunk on that evening.

“This was a short-lived but pretty brutal attack.

“It was one punch but you are a big man, a forceful man, a powerful man.

“This was a deliberate attack and wholly unprovoked.

“You were under the influence of alcohol which is an aggravating feature.

“You said Mr Hancox was the aggressor but he clearly wasn’t.”

Recorder Bradly handed the defendant a suspended prison sentence because he thought he could be rehabilitated in the community.

Stephenson was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months.

He was ordered to compete a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a 120-day alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement.

The defendant was made the subject of a six-month curfew between the hours of 7pm and 5am.

Stephenson must also pay Mr Hancox £2,400 in compensation, £400 towards prosecution costs and a £156 victim surcharge.