A STAG night reveller has been ordered to pay compensation to a Royal Navy diver who he punched so hard that he was thrown backwards over a bench.

Kieren Luscombe lashed out after a drink and drug fuelled night out in Torquay in which he encountered sailor Joseph Musker near a late night takeaway.

The two men were strangers but got into a verbal confrontation which ended when Mr Musker standing toe to toe with Luscombe and then being felled with a single punch.

The blow was so powerful that it knocked him senseless and sent him reeling over the bench where had been sitting before the attack. He suffered a 6 cm gash to his head and cut above one eye.

Luscombe, aged 26, of Rose Hill, Redruth, admitted causing actual bodily harm and personal possession of cocaine and ecstasy (MDMA) and was jailed for six months, suspended for two years by Judge Anna Richardson at Exeter Crown Court.

He was ordered to pay £1,000 compensation and do 140 hours unpaid community work and was curfewed for three months.

The judge told him: ‘You need to understand that this injury could have been fatal. He could quite easily have fractured his head and you could now be facing a very different charge and the rest of your life would look very different.

‘I give you credit for your full admissions and your expressions of remorse and disgust at your own behaviour when you saw the CCTV.’

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said Luscombe had been drinking and had taken cocaine on the night of March 19 last year before getting into a short verbal exchange with Mr Musker, who was sat on a bench near a Subway shop.

Mr Musker was on leave from the Royal Navy and had been out with friends before the attack. CCTV showed him standing up as Luscombe confronted him and then being knocked unconscious by a single punch.

He wrote a victim impact statement saying the attack had affected his career because he had to delay a mine clearance course as a result of his head injury.

Mr Stephen Nunn, defending, said this is the only offence which Luscombe has committed since being released 15 months ago from an earlier sentence for an arson in Cornwall.

He has otherwise done well on supervision and has a full time job and stable accommodation, all of which he would lose if sent straight to jail.

Mr Nunn said Luscombe had been shocked by his behaviour when police showed him the CCTV the next day and is determined to change. He is able to pay some compensation from his wages.