A DAD was fined £750 over an assault at a city centre nightclub.

Luke Jackson, of Wynbush Road, Rose Hill, Oxford, appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday charged with common assault following an incident outside The Plush Lounge in Park End Street.

When delivering the 22-year-old's sentence, Judge Ian Pringle QC told Jackson that there was a 'very easy solution' to alcohol related aggression.

Jane Davies, prosecuting, explained that the victim, Ian Porteous, had been out at the club with work colleagues on the night of Friday, October 28, last year.

At some point during the night he lost his friends and found himself alone.

There was a large group of males in the club and a tense atmosphere that led Mr Porteous to leave - only to find the unpleasant atmosphere spilled out onto the street.

He felt unsafe and said members of the large group of men were challenging him to a fight.

Fearing what would happen if he went off on his own, Mr Porteous waited for a taxi outside the club. The next thing he recalls is waking up in hospital.

The security at the club observed what happened in the interim. An argument broke out among a group of males that culminated with Jackson running up to Mr Porteous and punching him once to the left side of the face or body.

Gordana Turudiga-Austin, defending, said that, according to Jackson, Porteous had urged Jackson to fight him.

She also explained that 2016 had been a 'nightmare year' for Jackson. He struggled with mental health issues, including schizophrenia, and was sectioned.

He has, she said, turned his life around somewhat, and has a job as a night porter at the Macdonald Randolph Hotel. He is in training to be a night manager.

Judge Pringle, who gave Jackson a £750 fine, said: "If you drink late at night and find you cannot control your temper there is a very easy solution to that.

"You don't drink."