A judge watched a security video showing a former soldier battering a man in a street attack outside a bus stop.

Lee Fearnehough repeatedly punched and kicked Andrew Fisher as he lay helpless on the ground near the Red Lion pub in Bromsgrove.

Magistrates had also seen the film but sent the case to Worcester Crown Court for sentence because their powers were insufficient, said Leroy Henry, prosecuting.

Judge John Cavell said it was a vicious street attack on an innocent victim.

Only by good fortune had he escaped serious injury.

He jailed Fearnehough, of Marlfield Lane, Lakeside, Redditch, for eight months.

Mr Fisher took exception to two men shouting abuse at women outside the pub at midnight, on September 27 last year, and asked them to stop, said Mr Henry.

Fearnehough, aged 27, knocked him to the ground and continued the attack. But he was identified by a police officer from the video and arrested two months later.

Threatening

He had a previous conviction for threatening behaviour during a drunken argument outside another pub.

Brett Stevenson, defending, said Fearnehough was thrown out of his Manchester home at 13 and led an unstable life until the army.

"After three and a half years he was discharged and spent a year in jail for dishonesty.

The father-of-one now had a job as a fairground worker.

His bosses had given him a home and a new family and he was settling down.

Mr Stevenson added: "He deeply regrets his actions. The video appals him. When he watched it he was close to tears."