THE brother of a Cwmbran man injured in a pub brawl admitted they should have phoned the police instead of confronting a group said to have assaulted his nephew, a jury heard yesterday.

Richard Nodwell, aged 28, of Green Willows, Oakfield, is charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent following the incident on Boxing Night in 2014. He denies the offence and is on bail.

Victim Ian Doughty, then 38, sustained a broken nose, broken eye socket and broken cheekbone during the fight in the Cwrt Henllys pub in Cwmbran.

He had just been to a family party of around 15 people and decided to approach the group at the pub after his son, Ashley, 17, had been assaulted in the vicinity of the venue earlier that night.

Mr Doughty’s brother, Aaron, gave evidence in court yesterday and said he had around five or six pints of Strongbow cider at the party before heading to the pub four minutes after his brother.

The jury were shown CCTV footage of Ian Doughty and friends' arrival at the pub at 10.45pm, where they were confronted in the foyer by Nodwell, dressed is a bright yellow t-shirt, his brother, Rowan Nodwell, and other family and friends.

Cross-examined by Richard Nodwell’s barrister, Nigel Fryer, Aaron Doughty said that when he entered the front door of the pub at 10.49pm, there were “people screaming and shouting” and his brother had “gone down” from a series of punches and head-butts. He added that the defendant had also punched him.

Mr Fryer questioned: “When you looked in, there was shouting and screaming and Ian was on his own in the middle of the room and there were five or six people around him. Then the man in the yellow t-shirt hit you a few times with punches.

“Why didn’t you see that on the CCTV? The man in the yellow t-shirt is stood around there. He’s just talking to Ian at that stage; in fact, the man in the yellow t-shirt continues to stand there with his arms by his side. He didn’t throw any punches at you?”

Mr Doughty replied: “You can see his arms move.”

Mr Fryer answered: “He’s just gesticulating.”

Mr Fryer then queried: “Your brother, Ian, was very angry with what had gone on with Ashley?”

Mr Doughty replied: “He was very upset and in hindsight, we should’ve phoned the police, shouldn’t we?”

Mr Fryer replied: “Exactly.”

Proceeding.