A MAN has been spared jail after violence flared at a soup kitchen in Bradford, kicking and punching a stranger who complained his friend had been rude to staff.

Byron Scorgie yesterday received a 19 month prison sentence suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The 33-year-old, of Beamsley Road, Shipley, attended a soup kitchen on January 6, 2018, on the edge of Bradford city centre.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Scorgie was with Bethany Adamson-Wright and visited the Hallfield Road soup kitchen which is run out of a centre for the deaf.

Prosecutor Andrew Horton said that Scorgie's victim, 46-year-old Nisar Khan, was also a customer at the soup kitchen that night.

He was hearing impaired and used lip reading, he added, saying that Mr Khan had spotted Ms Adamson-Wright apparently being rude to a member of staff on the door.

"The complainant took exception to her behaviour and he made a comment to the defendant about getting his friend not to be rude."

Tempers flared and Scorgie was caught on CCTV cameras outside the building striking Mr Khan repeatedly. At least two punches and two kicks could be made out, some of which were while the complainant was lying prone on the ground.

Mr Horton said Mr Khan was left with injuries to his mouth which required multiple stitches and a tooth fell out while he was being interviewed by police about the attack.

George Hazel-Owram, for Scorgie, said his friend Ms Adamson-Wright had got into an argument with Mr Khan over this comments.

The complainant had in fact thrown a punch at her, prompting Scorgie to step in.

"It was perhaps defence of another gone too far," he said.

In mitigation he said that although Scorgie had previous convictions for battery, he suffered with mental health issues, including PTSD, anxiety and depression and an addiction to alcohol.

Having been on bail for the soup kitchen assault for a year, he had managed to turn his life around, he added, by seeking help for his alcohol addiction.

He now has his own flat for the first time and is working full time in a factory, said Mr Hazel-Owram.

Judge David Hatton QC said he accepted that there had been "a degree of provocation".

"It was an unpleasant assault, prolonged, continued when he was on the floor and very significantly you used your foot which was tantamount to a weapon."

But given Scorgie's progress he suspended the 19 months jail term for 12 months and ordered he complete 180 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation days.