Emmanuel Jose de Agrela left his victim with bruises to his left eye, marks to his right eye and deep scratches on his neck following the assault.
Agrela (39), of Rouge Bouillon, was sentenced to 120 hours’ community service, given a six-month probation order and was ordered to pay his victim £888 in compensation.
Police legal adviser Susie Sharpe said that on 26 August the defendant left the Havana nightclub and the victim approached him. The exchange was caught on CCTV and Miss Sharpe said that the pictures showed there was clearly tension between the two.
At about 2.50 am the victim tried to leave the area and, as he walked away, the defendant followed, the court heard. The two were seen walking along Colomberie with their arms around each other before they walked onto Route du Fort.
Miss Sharpe said that they were in the churchyard at St Luke’s Church, where both men had stopped to urinate, when the assault took place.
She said Agrela, a self-employed carpenter, got hold of the victim by the neck and took him to the floor.
‘While on the floor the defendant punched the victim a number of times,’ she said, adding that while he was on the ground the man’s mobile phone was damaged.
Miss Sharpe said the prosecution believed it was a ‘premeditated’ assault, as the defendant lived in a completely different direction from the victim.
Advocate Luke Sette, defending, said his client firmly denied the attack was premeditated, instead submitting that it was a ‘spur-of-the-moment’ assault.
The lawyer said that Agrela had no previous convictions and submitted that the victim had been abusive towards his client earlier in the evening.
In delivering the court’s sentence, the Magistrate, Bridget Shaw, described the attack as ‘unacceptable violence’ and added that there was no justification whatsoever for Agrela’s action.
‘You simply have no right to inflict violence on another human being,’ she said.
Agrela was also banned from pubs and nightclubs for three months.
