A HEADTEACHER’s son fractured another man’s eye socket in a nightclub attack.

Joseph Woodrow, 27, of Foxes Barn, Shelwick, Hereford, was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm by a jury last week.

Hereford Crown Court heard victim John Kenyon sustained injuries to two of his teeth in the attack in the city’s Play Nightclub in June 2013.

Mr Kenyon, who was a dental student at the time, told the court he went to queue at the bar when he bumped into someone and apologised.

He said that as he went to carry his drinks away from the bar, Woodrow poured a drink over his head, before punching him in the face.

Mr Kenyon fell backwards.

Brian Dean, defending, had claimed that Woodrow acted in self-defence. He said he was standing at the bar and tousled Mr Kenyon’s hair, thinking it was his friend.

When he realised his mistake, he apologised, but he said Mr Kenyon became aggressive and Woodrow became hemmed in at the bar.

Believing he was about to be attacked, Woodrow said he reached out his arm and his elbow connected with the left side of Mr Kenyon’s face.

CCTV footage showed Woodrow leaving the nightclub and then running away, as a doorman tried to grab him from behind.

John Brotherton, prosecuting, told the jury: “Mr Kenyon received injuries as a result.

“He is 6ft 5ins and 18 stone. He is a big bloke. He is put on his backside by whatever it was that hit him – it was a punch. It wasn’t an accidental elbow.”

Character references were read to the court. They said Woodrow – the son of Aylestone Business and Enterprise College principal Sue Woodrow – was an “outstanding ambassador for his family”.

The jury delivered a 10-2 majority guilty verdict. 

He will be sentenced at a later date.