A WYEDEAN lorry driver was given 14 days to pay £3,500 in compensation to a man he punched after a rugby match in Gloucester.

Julian Overthrow, of Mile End near Coleford, hit the left side of Sadiq Mohamed’s face outside The Heritage pub in Kingsholm Road, on the evening of Saturday, June 4, 2022 after Gloucester had played Saracens. Mr Mohamed was working as a food delivery driver on the city centre road that night when he stopped to help a man – who was the son of one of Overthow’s friends – who had fallen ill in the road, Gloucester Crown Court was told.  Mr Mohamed was told to leave the man alone, but refused to do so and then received “a forceful blow” to his face which left him with “immediate and severe pain”, the prosecution said. The force of the blow knocked Mr Mohamed to the ground and left him “covered in blood”.and with two broken teeth. The court heard how the victim was in “absolute agony for nearly six weeks." He stated: "I could only survive on liquified foods and eating yoghurt.” Months after the incident, Mr Mohamed said: “My face has changed, it is no longer symmetrical. I can’t open my mouth wide. It causes me to mumble. I don’t think it will ever go back to how it was.” He ended up quitting his job because of the incident and could no longer afford to pay the bills. Overthrow, 54, of Woodgate Road, Mile End, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and appeared at the city court for sentencing on Tuesday, April 9. Judge Ian Lawrie KC told the defendant, who has no previous convictions, he was “old enough to know better and should have shown better restraint”. Defending, Simon Goodman, said: “The fact that he did it is not lost on Overthrow or his wife. What could have happened is also not lost on Overthrow.” The court heard how Overthrow had been out with his friends and their sons prior to the incident. “Quite unexpectedly one of the sons was taken very ill,” Mr Goodman said, adding: “The victim comes out to get involved. In his own account he says, ‘I could see someone was lying on the floor and wanted to check he was OK. Someone came over and told him to **** off. “It was a very potent situation: a young man is unwell, an ambulance is on its way, Overthrow is trying to put him into a recovery position and there’s a man who won’t go away.” Mr Goodman said that he’d immediately admitted what he’d done in a conversation caught on a police body-worn camera, but not shown to court. “There was a discussion about who knew who. During that conversation, Overthrow admitted, without being questioned, that he assaulted that man.” The court heard that a pre-sentence report found Overthrow, who runs his own family business, “genuinely remorseful” and that he “never shied away from what he did”. Mr Goodman added that “this was not a fight outside a pub with people indulging in public disorder”. The court heard how the offence “crosses the custody threshold by a margin”, but Judge Lawrie later said “he’s not going to prison today”. In sentencing, Judge Lawrie said the moments leading up to the fateful punch “could have been dealt with far more differently if you had been sober”.

He added: “You could have killed with that punch, it was quite a forceful punch.” As well as the order to pay £3,500 compensation to his victim within two weeks Overthrow also had to pay a victim surcharge of £95.