A FORMER junior boxing champion has been jailed after he felled a student at a taxi rank, fracturing his eye socket.

Kyle "Rusty" Peebles, 19, who delivered the powerful punch during an unprovoked attack in Carlisle city centre, admitted causing his victim grievous bodily harm.

His friend Aidan Steven, 25, who also joined the attack, admitted the same offence.

He was given a suspended jail sentence.

At Carlisle Crown Court, prosecutor Jon Close said the violence erupted just before 4am in Court Square, Carlisle, on April 17 this year.

The two defendants were waiting in a queue besides the taxi rank and they were heard making sexually suggestive comments about a woman who was there with her boyfriend, said Mr Close.

Responding, the woman's boyfriend mumbled something about the two men under his breath and Peebles, who overheard it, immediately became aggressive.

To defuse the situation, the couple left the queue.

But the defendants then turned their aggression towards 21-year-old Ashley Cooke, a student who was also in the queue and on his way home after a night out.

Mr Cooke's girlfriend tried also to defuse the situation, saying: "We don't want any trouble; what was said before was a joke."

Mr Close said: "But the defendants got angrier and angrier. It got to the point where Mr Cooke took his glasses off and that was was the last thing he remembered."

Steven moved towards him, prompting Mr Cooke's girlfriend to step between them.

"At that stage," said Mr Close, "Peebles moved from the side, towards the complainant, and struck him to the face, knocking him to the floor."

That was the blow which prosecutors say fractured the victim's jaw.

Once he was on the floor, the court heard, the two defendants continued their attack, kicking their victim as he lay on the ground, aiming some blows at his head.

The next thing Mr Cooke remembered was waking up on the road, surrounded by police officers. He needed hospital treatment for the fracture and for a cut to the back of his head, which needed stitches.

Peebles was identified because another person in the queue recognised him from his amateur boxing days, when became a national amateur junior boxing champion, known as Rusty Peebles. But he was aggressive with the police when questioned.

Steven was caught after he voluntarily went to the police station, claiming he was a witness to what happened.

When interviewed, Peebles claimed Mr Cooke was the aggressor, saying he had only pushed him once in self-defence. Steven said that his only involvement was to drag his friend Peebles away from the altercation.

Mr Close outlined the effect of the attack on the victim, saying he had been left suffering depression, and sleeplessness.

He then outlined Peebles' past criminal history, which included several offences of violence, including an affray.

Steven had only only one previous convictions for an unrelated type of offence.

Greg Hoare, for Peebles, of Merith Avenue, Botcherby, accepted that his criminal record was unattractive but he said his past as a trained fighter should not be held against him.

Mark Shepherd, for Steven, said his client was a doting father who had previously worked as a bar supervisor, a job during which he dealt with drunk people and had never once lost his temper.

Recorder Julie Clemitson told the defendants they had been responsible for what one of their barristers described as a "depressingly common eruption of violence" at a taxi queue during a night out.

She told Peebles: "You have an appalling record for violence."

She noted that he had medical diagnosis of a personality disorder, and a possible bipolar disorder and that he was now taking medication to help that but he still posed a high risk of further offending and a medium risk of causing serious harm to other people.

She jailed him for two years.

The Recorder jailed Steven, of Blundell Road, Harraby, for two years also, but suspended the sentence for 18 months, acknowledging that the offence was out of character. He must complete 200 hours of unpaid work in the community, and pay his victim £500 compensation.

Sergeant Rob Ewin, of Carlisle CID, said: “Such acts of violence will not be tolerated in the city or elsewhere in the county. Where such incidents do occur, we will investigate and do everything in our power to bring the offender before the courts.”