Man jailed for attack that left victim unable to walk or talk

Adam Smith, 25, launched the unprovoked violence on Phillip Snowden in Mustang Sally’s in Wakefield on October 16, last year.

He first punched him around eight times flooring him and then kicked him in the face ”like a goalkeeper trying to kick the ball over the half way line,” Michael Smith, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Snowden, 33, a welder fabricator from Pontefract suffered devastating injuries including brain damage and a fractured vertebra which will mean that he will need care for the rest of his life.

He had only been married a short time and he and his wife Lisa were hoping to adopt children before starting a new life in Canada.

Smith, of Cobblers Lane, Pontefract, was jailed for nine years and four months after admitting causing him grievous bodily harm with intent.

Sentencing him, Judge Christopher Batty said Mr Snowden left home and went for a night out with friends. “He never came back and that’s because of you.”

He told Smith that within him he had a streak which led to him behaving violently, first shown as teenager in trouble at school and then in 2007 again when, in drink, he had knocked someone unconscious in the queue at the same nightclub where “Mr Snowden met his fate that night”.

Police decided only to caution him for that, “God knows why,” said the judge. Smith was cautioned again for punching another man in Pontefract later the same year.

“Then in October last year you got yourself into a rage fuelled by excessive alcohol.”

Mr Snowden had done nothing to him and backed away on the dance floor with his hands up indicating he did not want any trouble when Smith went towards him, some witnesses describing him brandishing a bottle.