AN EX-SOLDIER was today starting two months in jail for kicking a man's head and beating him up on a York race night.

James Stuart Barnes, 19, chased a man - who was staggering from a group of people - and felled him with a blow to the head, right in front of a police car, said Steven Ovenden, prosecuting.

In a drink-fuelled attack, he repeatedly punched and kicked the head of his unknown victim who was lying motionless on the ground in Micklegate.

The street was thronged with people because York Races had been held earlier that day.

Barnes, of St Luke's Grove, Clifton, York, pleaded guilty to unlawful violence.

Magistrates jailed him yesterday for two months.

Mr Ovenden said plain clothes police were travelling by car, in Micklegate, at 7.30pm, on Saturday, July 14, when Barnes felled his victim just ten yards in front of them. They immediately pulled up.

Barnes bent down and punched the prone man at least twice in the head. The blows were so hard the victim's head rocked back and forth. Then he kicked the man "forcibly" in the head at least twice, said Mr Ovenden.

Eyewitnesses pulled Barnes away from the man who was lying unmoving in the road.

Barnes had had seven or eight pints of lager to drink, and told police he had lost his temper because his victim had knocked into his girlfriend. After the attack, the victim "managed to get up and disappear, not giving any details to the police officer", said Mr Ovenden.

For Barnes, Mark Thompson said no one, including the police, had mentioned seeing serious injuries or blood on the victim, who also appeared to have been drinking.

The attacker, a soldier for two years, had reacted in the way he did because he was in drink at the time, and believed the victim had deliberately barged into his girlfriend. He maintained the victim punched him first.

But he accepted he had a problem keeping his temper when in drink and was remorseful for his actions.

Magistrates heard Barnes had a previous conviction for a public order offence. He was ordered to do 80 hours community service and pay £250 compensation, plus £521 costs, after he pleaded guilty when he and others were due to stand trial for unlawful violence at York Crown Court in May 2000.

Updated: 11:43 Thursday, August 09, 2001