A NIGHTCLUB bouncer who threw a ‘hay-maker’ punch at a man he had caught ‘sniffing cocaine’ in the club toilets has been cleared by Skipton magistrates of assault.

Daniel Bowker, 31, an experienced doorman who was working for the first time at Kooky Nightclub in Keighley Road, Skipton on September 2, was carrying out half hourly checks of the men’s toilets when he heard a sniffing noise coming from one of the cubicles, the court heard.

Mr Bowker told the court on Tuesday he pushed open the door to find James Hindle holding a small bag of white powder which he then proceeded to put into his pocket. He asked Mr Hindle to hand the bag over, and after he refused and also declined to be searched, he told him he would have to leave.

As he was escorting him out, Mr Hindle started ‘kicking off’ and threw two or three punches at him, one of them connecting with his face, said Mr Bowker.

“I was very nervous, I was on my own, I had called for assistance, but had not even got an acknowledgement. I was trying to get him to the main part of the club where other people could see, but I didn’t know if any of his mates were with him. I was genuinely scared, and did what I had to do. He had already hit me and I was frightened he would do it again, I had no other option,” said Mr Bowker

He hit Mr Hindle just the once, and he fell unconscious to the floor. Mr Hindle's girlfriend, Stacy Metcalfe, who was with him at the club, celebrating their anniversary, ran over and shouted at Mr Bowker, who claimed she then slapped him round the face and punched him in the chest.

Club DJ, Scott Lindsey described in court seeing Mr Bowker throw Mr Hindle against a wall before delivering a ‘hay-maker’ punch which left him unconscious. He said Mr Bowker had told him he had caught the other man ‘sniffing cocaine’ and that he had told the bouncer he was ‘bang out of order.’

Ms Metcalfe was escorted out of the club, followed by her boyfriend, and she took him to Airedale Hospital by taxi where he had a cut to his lip stitched and an x-ray carried out on an injured ankle, for a suspected fracture.

Mr Bowker, a man of good character, who denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm, was sober at the time, and had been carrying out his duties, said magistrates, who found him not guilty of assault.

“We find you carried out what was necessary to defend yourself. It was a single punch, that you did not follow up and the force was appropriate to what you believed was the situation you found yourself in,” they said.