A bouncer who knocked out a drunken "troublemaker" after he pulled his coat over his head was today spared jail.
CCTV footage showed Jonathon Seville being thrown out of Empire Bar in St Helens after an alleged dance floor fight.
But he then decided to pull Gary Keeley's coat over the doorman's head, in what prosecutors described as a "scuffle".
Keeley , 38, managed to get free and headbutted Mr Seville, then punched him twice, leaving him unconscious.
The dad-of-two, of Blackbrook Road, St Helens , denied assault causing actual bodily harm, claiming he acted in self-defence.
He represented himself and elected to have a trial before magistrates, rather than a crown court jury, but was found guilty.
Keeley appeared at Liverpool Crown Court today without legal representation and told a judge: "Basically I can't afford it."
Mr Seville was home in St Helens to visit family when he went out in the town on the evening of December 22 last year.
Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, said Mr Seville "accepted he had a lot to drink - between 10 to 15 pints of lager".
Mr Taylor said: "He says he doesn't remember much else, other than waking up and being told by paramedics somebody had a go at him."
CCTV footage from the Westfield Street club, at around 4.30am, showed Mr Seville approach Keeley from behind and put his hand on his back, before pulling the doorman’s coat over his head and being struck three times in return, at which point another doorman intervened.
Mr Taylor said: "The victim doesn't recall much else, there is no other evidence as to explain why he was ejected from Empire Bar."
Judge Thomas Teague, QC, interjected: "But clearly he had been making a nuisance of himself." Mr Taylor replied: "It's a fair assumption."
Mr Seville was taken to hospital and underwent a scan, which did not reveal any serious injury, but he suffered a scar on his forehead.
Mr Taylor said Keeley told police and maintained at trial he acted in self-defence, but magistrates "found it went beyond that".
He said: "He now accepts he went too far."
Keeley has a conviction for battery in 2013, when he pushed a woman out of a takeaway, who had been shouting at his girlfriend.
He was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm in 1997, after delivering a single punch to another man on New Year's Eve.
Mr Taylor said he had spoken to Keeley, who accepted he was working as a doorman, which "placed a higher standard upon him".
He said: "He readily accepted that and he's expressed remorse to me."
Mr Taylor said Keeley was "seeking to change his life" by now working for a marquee company abroad and as an apprentice tattooist.
Keeley addressed the judge and said: "I'd just like to say I do think I went a bit overboard looking back at that, but on the night which you haven't seen there was a dance floor fight, a big fight which this person was involved in.
"He was hard to eject from the club and then he tried to attack me. He tried twice to cause violence. He was very, very drunk."
Keeley added: "When my coat got pulled over my head I was scared for a moment and it was just a reaction, a self-defence reaction."
However, Judge Teague said: "There was no reason to headbutt him like that." Keeley replied: "No your honour."
The dad said: "I've taken myself away from the doors, tried to get as far away as possible from that environment.
"In the last 12 months I've done nothing wrong, no convictions, no arrests, I've tried my best to distance myself from that."
Judge Teague said Mr Seville was "no doubt ejected from the bar for good reason".
He said: "I would never discount a victim personal statement just because it came from somebody who I think I'm safe in saying had caused trouble earlier in the night, it's certainly something I cannot completely ignore."
The judge added: "There was other than the scar no injury, it's a permanent scar, albeit a small one. It's impossible to know how visible it is now."
Judge Teague said headbuttting, like kicking with a shod foot, was classed as the use of a weapon.
He said: "I recognise there was some provocation, but I'm afraid that counts for very little, given you were employed to protect members of the public, even particularly annoying ones, not assault them."
The judge handed Keeley nine months in jail, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
He decided not to make an order for compensation, adding: "There is not really any way of attributing just how much this victim contributed to the trouble inside the club."
