A FORMER head doorman of the Gallery nightclub is serving two years in jail for beating up a customer outside the club, it was revealed today.

The attack led to a police corruption trial during which York policewoman Clare Woodall, 28, was convicted of misconduct.

Her former boyfriend, Paul Sawford, 30, also known as Paul Douglas, was jailed in January for a kicking and punching attack on Ashley Tunstill on Boxing Day, 2000. But legal restrictions prevented the media reporting on his trial and sentence until the conclusion of the trial of his co-accused, Marc Shane Ward, 30.

Mr Ward had been jointly charged with Sawford with causing actual bodily harm on Mr Tunstill, but was tried separately for legal reasons. Both men were doormen at the Gallery nightclub and both denied the charge. A jury convicted Sawford in January. Today, a different jury acquitted Mr Ward within an hour.

Mr Tunstill gave evidence that he still suffers tingling in his cheek as a result of the attack that left him with a fractured cheekbone and two black eyes.

"I am satisfied that the appalling injuries he suffered were caused by you banging his head , kicking him to the head and head-butting him," Judge David Bentley QC told Sawford in January.

"It is deplorable to see people with a proven record for violence taken on to do this type of work (doorman). And how mistaken it was to give you that sort of responsibility is demonstrated by what happened on this night."

The judge heard that the 30-year-old former Manchester man, who was living in Harrogate under an assumed name at the time of the attack, has previous convictions for violence and wounding for which he served a four-month jail term in 1996. He jailed Sawford for two years. Mr Ward, of High Petergate, York, who has no convictions, made no comment as he left York Crown Court today.

The jury at Mr Ward's trial saw a video of both men descending the club's fire escape with Mr Tunstill as they evicted him for being involved in an altercation with another customer.

Witnesses gave evidence that Sawford had already head-butted Mr Tunstill inside the club, and at the bottom of the fire escape he further assaulted him.

Mr Ward denied that he inflicted any injuries on Mr Tunstill.

He told the jury that the day after the attack, Sawford showed him a police crime report of the incident and mentioned that witnesses may be visited. Mr Ward said he wanted nothing to do with that, and the attack was nothing to do with him. But he took a copy of the report and, in July 2001, he took the copy to the police. Last month, a jury convicted Woodall, of Bishopthorpe, of misconduct as a police officer by giving the report to Sawford, then her boyfriend. She is awaiting sentence.

Updated: 14:44 Monday, April 15, 2002