TWO friends brawled in a Burton street after a fight erupted over a woman, a court heard.
Latvian immigrant Andrejs Kulikovskis became upset when he saw his girlfriend kissing fellow countryman Guntars Kanapolis.
They had been to a house party in Ash Street where huge quantities of vodka were drunk, Stafford Crown Court was told.
When Mr Kanapolis left the party with his friend’s girlfriend around 7am, Kulikovskis jumped in front of them.
Paul Farrow, prosecuting, said the victim, fearing an attack, grabbed hold of the defendant and the pair scuffled until Kulikovskis hit the other man in the face, sending him crashing to the ground.
Mr Kanapolis remembered nothing else until he was taken to hospital. Doctors found he had a fractured jaw and has since had two metal plates inserted to repair it.
When questioned by police, Kulikovskis said he had seen the other man kissing his girlfriend and confronted them outside. He said he was as drunk as everyone else.
Kulikovskis, 22, of Branston Road, Burton, who admitted a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm, was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work.
Judge Simon Tonking told him: “You and four others drank a large amount of vodka and when, in the morning, you were going home, you didn’t like it [Mr Kanapolis] was going home with your girlfriend.
“You and he had a drunken fight about that and you got the better of it. It is not acceptable for you to say you would do the same thing again, that’s just wrong.”
Darron Whitehead, defending, said Kulikovskis had lost his job as a result of the incident and his fellow countrymen had disowned him.
“He’s chosen to leave his girlfriend. He was thinking with his heart rather than his head.”
It was also revealed that since the incident, Kulikovskis had met the victim, apologised to him and they were now friends again.
