A SLAUGHTERHOUSE worker has escaped a trip to jail, but must pay £2,000 compensation to the man he ambushed and beat up.

Michael James Middleton, 18, recruited "local hard guy" Karl Livesey to help him in the attack that left Brett Ellis with a jaw broken in two places, said Nick Worsley, prosecuting.

They ambushed the victim and the Middleton battered his head after knocking him to the ground.

He then told Mr Ellis's father: "I did it and I will hit him again if you like."

The court heard that Livesey, who was wearing steel-capped boots, may have kicked Mr Ellis. Middleton did not kick him.

But Middleton alone stood in the dock at York Crown Court after the CPS decided not to prosecute Livesey. Livesey was not picked out in an ID parade.

Middleton, of Manor Garth, Kellington, near Selby, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

"You were brutally remorseless in the attack when you repeatedly beat him when he was on the ground," the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Middleton, but also said that there had been "some provocation".

He gave him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years with two years' supervision, 200 hours' unpaid work and a three-month nightly curfew. He also ordered him to pay £2,000 compensation.

"This might just be one of those cases where if I give you a chance, it may turn you from a life of crime. If you blow the chance, I will send you down those stairs (to the cells)," the judge told Middleton.

Mr Worsley said Middleton had drunk 12 cans of Stella Artois before the attack and that he and Livesey went looking for Mr Ellis in a van. Mr Ellis had been drinking too. The victim needed two plates inserted, one on either side of his face.

Defence barrister Taryn Turner said there was bad blood between Middleton and Mr Ellis. The day of the attack, the victim had made threats directed at Middleton's sister and her young children. Mr Worsley said Mr Ellis denied this.

Mrs Turner said Middleton had undergone a "sea change" since the attack last year and had sworn off alcohol.

His parents and employer were standing by him.