A DRINKER who fractured a pub customer’s skull with a single punch that caused him “two bleeds on the brain” was jailed.

Luke Prole, aged 40, of Elgam Avenue, Blaenavon, attacked George Edwards at the town’s Castle Hotel last summer, leaving him unconscious for five minutes.

Richard Ace, prosecuting, showed Cardiff Crown Court CCTV footage of the assault which took place on the night of August 10, 2018.

Prole, who had a “history of violence”, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm.

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told the defendant he had attacked his victim after he and a friend had entered the Castle Hotel at around 9.30pm.

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The court heard how the three men had shaken hands over a previous altercation in which Prole felt he had been “picked on”.

The judge said to the defendant that he then became “quite animated” before he launched his assault on Mr Edwards.

She told him: “You delivered an extremely forceful blow with your full force behind it to his face, knocking him to the floor unconscious.”

Prole apologised for what he had done and immediately left the pub.

Judge Lloyd-Clarke said the victim was taken home but days after the attack began to feel “severe pain” and was taken to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital where he was told he had a fractured skull and “two bleeds on the brain.”

Mr Edwards was transferred to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff but did not need surgical treatment.

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The court heard that Prole had 16 previous convictions for 24 offences and had been jailed for 12 months for GBH in 1999 and had an assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his record from 2003.

Judge Lloyd-Clarke said he had caused his victim a “serious injury” and jailed him for one year.

Peter Donnison, mitigating, said his client had been a delivery driver who had lost his job as a result of telling his employer of what he had done.

His barrister added that the defendant had expressed his “remorse and regret” in his pre-sentence report.

Mr Donnison said: “He is not a danger to the public.”