A 24-YEAR-old Dudley man who badly broke the jaw of a stranger in temper with one punch has been locked up for 21 months.

Jordan Bullock, who was the subject of a suspended prison at the time for violence, wrongly thought he had been spat at, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

He reacted when two men had walked past him outside the Meadow Lark pub, in Dibdale Road, where customers had been watching a friendly England football match on TV.

Bullock – who had been drinking – picked on the wrong man in the pair and he lashed out with a single punch causing serious injury.

Victim Brad Gutteridge had his jaw broken so badly he had to have three metal plates inserted in his face by surgeons to correct the damage.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Gutteridge later told police officers he had lost one-and-a-half stone in weight, he had been unable to work for two months and he was only just starting to get his confidence back – more than two years after the incident.

Bullock, a trainee bricklayer from Kinfare Rise, Gornal Wood, had denied inflicting grievous bodily harm, but he was convicted by a jury after they retired to consider the evidence at the end of his trial.

Judge Peter Barrie told him there was evidence that he had clearly downed too much alcohol, adding: “There is nothing to say you knew either of these two men who walked past you outside the pub where you had all been drinking.

“You may have taken umbrage at one of them spitting at you. It was not the one you punched during your sudden rage.”

The judge said he had struck out at a man who had done him no harm at all, adding he may also have misinterpreted the actions of the second man.

“You have a tendency to turn violent having been given a suspended prison sentence for similar behaviour eight months earlier,” said the judge. “This was an act of completely uncalled for violence.”

Stephen Hamblett, defending Bullock, stressed he had kept out of trouble with police since the incident in May 2016.