AN attacker was told on Friday he was “extremely fortunate” that his victim had turned up in court to support him.

“If it wasn’t for that you would be going down the steps,” Judge Niclas Parry told Samuel Lewis Hughes, 25, in the dock at Caernarfon Crown Court.

Instead Hughes, of Awel y Môr, Tywyn, who had been sent for sentence after being convicted by magistrates of causing actual bodily harm to Keith Jones outside a Tywyn pub in February last year, was given a 12 months’ jail sentence, suspended for a year with 120 hours of unpaid work.

He was banned from Tywyn pubs for three months and told to pay £425 costs.

William Hingston, prosecuting, said Mr Jones was a former partner of the defendant’s mother, and effectively had been his stepfather.

Several witnesses had seen Mr Jones fall to the ground and being kicked and punched in the attack. One witness claimed he was “being kicked as if a football.”

Added Mr Hingston: “He believes he lost consciousness after the second kick.”

He lost one tooth and three were chipped but Hughes had denied kicking. However the prosecutor said it was a sustained attack.

Hughes did not have a barrister but speaking on his behalf solicitor Gareth Parry said there had been a loss of control due to circumstances at the time, but these had now changed.

Judge Parry told Hughes: ”Time has passed, Mr Jones had forgiven you.

“You are a working man with another side to your character.”