A fencing contractor was described in court as a completely changed man to the drinker who got involved in a pub brawl.

Thomas Mooring, 26, ended up in the dock of a crown court after one of his fellow brawlers at Abingdon’s Boundary House pub on October 5, 2019, was taken to hospital with a broken ankle.

He was charged with serious assault allegations but, on the day of his trial, pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of affray.

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Defending, Jonathan Coode told Oxford Crown Court on Friday (October 15) took the judge’s attention to a picture of the victim in his hospital gown, taken after the attack.

“He, on any view, presented as a scary man who came flying out of that pub with his fists flying,” the barrister said.

“It is in that context that Mr Mooring now accepts he is guilty of affray rather than the specific assault to intend specific injury.”

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Prosecutor Mark Gadsden said the victim had come out of the pub after learning that a ‘friend of his son’ was ‘getting kicked outside the public house’.

He went to intervene, it was said.

However, the violence escalated and the man ended up on the ground being assaulted by a group of men.

One witness claimed that Mooring threw around four punches, although Mr Coode said that the witness’s police statement was challenged.

The witness did not turn up for the trial.

The victim suffered broken ribs and a broken ankle.

He was offered surgery but declined any surgical intervention, the prosecutor said. It took eight to nine weeks for the fracture to heal.

In a victim personal statement, he said he was a scaffolder by trade and had to go out in all weathers.

The injury had ‘caused him no end of problems’, prosecutor Mr Gadsden summarised.

Mooring, of Tyrrells Way, Sutton Courtenay, pleaded guilty in August to affray.

He had a previous conviction, dating back to before the pub brawl, for assaulting a pub landlord.

Mitigating, Mr Coode said the defendant was in a long-term relationship, had a young child and had set up his own business in the four years since the brawl. Character references described him as hard-working, honest, kind-hearted and caring.

“This is a man who in his teens and up to four years ago clearly was a very different person. He got himself into a couple of scrapes,” the barrister said.

“He is, in my respectful submission, [...] clearly a reformed character. He has worked hard, he is clearly a devoted family man and a devoted parent.”

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The judge, Recorder John Bate-Williams, imposed 10 months imprisonment suspended for a year and a half.

“I am going to take a step which, perhaps, when I initially saw this case I was not intending to follow,” he said.

He added: “By a narrow margin, I have come to the conclusion that I can impose a suspended sentence order in this case.”

Mooring was ordered to do 125 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 in prosecution costs.