A 31-YEAR-OLD man who broke another man's nose in an assault in Enniskillen over two years ago has received a suspended jail term and been ordered to pay £500 compensation to his victim.

Jonathan William Browne, of Railway Park, Maguiresbridge, was charged with assaulting Richard Finlay, thereby occasioning him actual bodily harm, on December 30, 2014.

Browne had initially denied the charge, but changed his plea to guilty on the morning that his contest was due to be heard at Fermanagh Magistrates Court.

The case was then adjourned to allow for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

At his sentencing yesterday (Wednesday), the court heard that, at 1.50am on December 30, 2014, police responded to a report of a “disturbance” on Darling Street, Enniskillen.

Officers spoke to Mr. Finlay and other people in his company. They observed that the injured party's face and clothes were covered in blood, which appeared to be coming from his nose.

Mr. Finlay told police that he had been assaulted by a male who left the area just before the PSNI arrived. He gave a distinctive description of his alleged assailant.

Around 10 minutes later, the defendant, who was wearing clothes matching this description, was located on Wellington Road.

After officers observed that his clothes had blood stains, he replied: “I fell.”

He was then asked to unzip his jacket, and was found to be wearing a ripped t-shirt.

Browne was subsequently arrested for the assault.

The injured party sustained a broken nose in the attack, the court heard.

In a statement given to police, Mr. Finlay claimed that he had left a bar and the defendant approached him before punching him in the nose in an “unprovoked attack”.

The injured party further claimed that he ducked as Browne continued to punch.

Meanwhile, the defendant did not answer any questions when he was brought in for interview.

Instead, he read from a prepared statement in which he denied the assault and claimed he had been the victim, not the aggressor.

Defending counsel, Ciaran Roddy, told the court that his client's behaviour had been “completely out-of-character”, adding that he had not come to police attention since the incident.

Conceding that it had been an “unsavoury incident of a violent nature”, the barrister said that Browne had made the case it was self-defence.

However, Mr. Roddy said that the defendant's memory had been affected by his level of his intoxication and the time that had passed since the assault.

After viewing CCTV footage, the defendant had entered a guilty plea on the day of the contest.

In mitigation, the barrister said that Browne did not go out looking for a fight and “reacted to circumstances he found himself in”.

He admitted that his client's judgement had been “clouded”.

While revealing that the defendant was in breach of a suspended sentence, Mr. Roddy told the court that it was for an offence of an entirely different nature.

He added that the father-of-two, who had indicated his remorse, was the sole breadwinner for his family.

District judge, Nigel Broderick, observed that, while the assault itself was serious enough to justify custody, the defendant was also in breach of a suspended sentence.

Taking into account the delay in the case, the judge said it was “not entirely clear” why it had taken so long for the matter to come before the court.

Mr. Broderick told the defendant he had a “lot to lose” by going to prison, but said that a number of factors were saving him from a custodial term.

The judge said there had been no further offending since December 2014 and it was clear that Browne had expressed his remorse and wanted to apologise to his victim.

Mr. Broderick imposed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for the assault and also ordered the defendant to pay £500 compensation.

The judge also reactivated Browne's existing suspended sentence. This is a three-month term, suspended for two years.