A “SUDDEN, shocking and excessively violent” attack outside an Oxfordshire nightclub left a man with long-standing injuries.

Richard Wilkes was punched with such force he was “knocked off his feet” by 22-year-old Ryan Roberts.

The attack, outside what was then known as Strattons nightclub in Abingdon, left Mr Wilkes with a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a form of bleeding on the brain.

Seven months on from the August 20 incident, Mr Wilkes remains unable to work and has been signed off until July.

Roberts, of St Annes Court, Didcot, was jailed for two years and three months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday after a jury had earlier found him guilty of causing grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutor Adam Gersch told the court Roberts had two previous convictions for causing actual bodily harm and one for common assault.

In one incident a man he attacked in his own home suffered a stroke shortly afterwards, which doctors linked to the assault.

Describing another of Roberts’ attacks in February 2007, Mr Gersch said: “The defendant was a passenger in a friend’s car along with a group of other young men who had been out drinking in Didcot.

“They stopped at a petrol garage for food and two other men walked up and asked for a lift.

“Roberts got out and became aggressive, headbutted one of them before punching him repeatedly in the head, knocking him unconscious.

“While lying on the ground he kicked him in the head.”

Mr Gersch said the victim of the attack outside Strattons had suffered continuing dizzy spells and loss of earnings totalling £20,655.

Aneurin Brewer, defending, said his client felt threatened by Mr Wilkes approaching his group and never intended to cause a serious injury.

Recorder Peter Lodder said the “lack of evidence for provocation is, in my judgment, stark”.

Sentencing Roberts, he added: “It was 2am on August 20 outside Strattons in Abingdon.

“There was no threat to you and you, in drink, acted in a sudden, shocking and excessively violent way.

“You struck him with such force he was – to use the constable’s words – knocked off his feet and fell unconscious to the ground.

“This was senseless, unacceptable, drink-fuelled violence.”