A YORK man left another drinker with a brain injury when he stamped or kicked his head while his victim lay on the ground on the ground, a court heard.

Father-to-be Dean David Alan North, 22, will spend Christmas behind bars as he serves 15 months for the "savage" attack on Gary Stone outside Ziggy's nightclub in Micklegate, York, on May 19.

Nicholas Frith, prosecuting, said North felled his victim to the ground with a punch to the face and took three or four steps backwards.

"Then (he) began to stamp or kick at the complainant's head. This took place three times - three kicks to the head," said Mr Frith, at York Crown Court.

A firefighter, who with a colleague had just attended an alarm in a property nearby, gave the victim first-aid.

Mr Stone suffered a swelling to the brain, a broken collar bone and other injuries to his head and shoulders, but was released from hospital after three days, the barrister added.

"What on earth you were doing late at night stamping on a man's head, I just cannot envisage," Judge Michael Murphy QC told North.

"Whatever the provocation, it was savage and unnecessary and out of all proportion to what was said or done to you."

He jailed North for 15 months.

North, 22, of Tudor Road, Acomb, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm.

Mr Frith said the prosecution accepted that both men had been "heavily in drink".

For North, Chris Tehrani said North remembered Mr Stone and his friends attacking him as he came out of the nightclub.

He was a hard-working man who had no previous convictions for violence. His girlfriend was pregnant.

Updated: 11:13 Saturday, December 15, 2001