A judge has hit out at the rising tide of late-night violence in Harrogate after a man had his jaw broken in an unprovoked attack at one of the town’s major night spots.

Judge Simon Hickey’s damning indictment of drink-fuelled violence in the town’s nightclubs came after a man was viciously attacked by two others at The Viper Rooms in Parliament Street, causing “life-changing” injuries.

The victim was out with his girlfriend and minding his own business on the crowded terrace of the popular club when Bradley Slater, 34, and 36-year-old Harry Smith, who had been on an all-day booze bender, attacked him for no apparent reason, York Crown Court heard.

The victim, who was named in court, had his back to the drunken pair when Slater let fly a punch which the victim didn’t see coming and which struck him in the side of the head, connecting with his jaw, said prosecutor Lauren Smith.

Slater and the victim then started grappling as Smith grabbed the victim’s partner when she tried to separate the men. Slater, who had drunk about 20 pints, then punched the victim a further “five or six times”.

Police were called out and when officers arrived, they found the victim in the back of an ambulance receiving treatment for a broken jaw.

The two attackers had vanished but were located by CCTV operators and arrested nearby shortly afterwards.

Both men, from Burnley, were charged with affray and Slater was initially also charged with wounding without intent. However, this charge was later dropped and both men admitted affray. They appeared for sentence yesterday (Wednesday, May 29).

Ms Smith said the bar and courtyard were packed when the attack occurred at about 2.30am on April 16, 2022.

CCTV footage showed Smith and Slater approaching the victim as he was enjoying a drink on the terrace with his girlfriend. The victim turned his back to the two men and looked away before the first blow was struck.

The victim’s girlfriend stood between him and Slater but then Smith pulled her away and he too tried to get at the victim.

Slater then went for him again as his girlfriend was trying to break free from Smith. The victim was then “pulled off his feet and dragged backwards” and attacked again.

He was taken to a local hospital by ambulance but was later transferred to York District Hospital for specialist surgery to his fractured jaw. Such was the severity of the injury that he had to have a second operation the following month.

Slater, of Maden Fold Bank, told police he had been drinking “all day” which meant his memory of the incident was “foggy”.

Smith, of Manchester Road, Hapton, said he was so drunk he had “no idea why he was in police custody”. He admitted attacking the victim “without provocation”.

The victim, a father-of-one, said that to be attacked “in such a vicious, unprovoked way, in my home town, is extremely unsettling and something that I’ll never get over”.

Surgeons had inserted five metal plates to realign his jaw, but he no longer had any feeling around his bottom lip, mouth and chin. He had been left with a scar around his ear from the surgery, his facial appearance had changed and he even found it painful to brush his teeth.

He couldn’t eat solid food for six weeks after the operation and the pain had been “almost unbearable”.

The attack had such a profound effect that he and his partner barely went out socialising anymore, not even for meals.

Ms Smith said the prosecution had no conclusive proof of how the victim’s jaw was broken, but it was a joint attack.

Defence barrister Mark Stuart said that neither Slater nor Smith could offer any explanation for the vicious attack, except that they and the victim may have “bumped into each other” beforehand.

He said they had acted “completely out of character”, were “extremely remorseful” and they both admitted that the victim was completely blameless.

He said both defendants were married, working men with families. Slater, a father-of-two, ran his own window-cleaning business.

Judge Mr Hickey said the attack “in a busy bar, in the middle of Harrogate”, was yet another example of increasing levels of late-night violence in the town’s nightclubs and streets.

Although the two defendants were working men in “stable, loving marriages” and had expressed “extreme remorse”, they had attacked an innocent, hard-working man “for no good reason in a public bar”, leaving him with “life-changing” injuries, which meant only an immediate jail sentence could be justified.

Slater and Smith were each jailed for 12 months.