A thug kicked, punched, stamped and spat on a man he was "romantically involved" with in a sustained attack after a song made him upset about his ex girlfriend.
Michael Lang had known his victim for around two months when they met up on January 7 and consumed alcohol and had a "sing song", a court heard.
However their fun quickly turned to violence after one particular song sparked an emotional response from Lang. Michael Bunch, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court : "A song came on which reminded him of an ex girlfriend and he became upset.
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"[The victim] tried to comfort him and the defendant began to shout at him. He punched him out of the back door, causing him to fall to the ground. He repeatedly assaulted him by punching, kicking, stamping and spitting on him.
"It lasted 15 minutes in total. He continued to assault him. He said he couldn't breathe and told him he was going to die.
"[The victim] lay on the ground pretending to be unconscious. He heard the defendant saying 'you better get here now, I'm going to kick him in the temple'. That appears to have been him contacting the police."
When police turned up, he told them: "I've sparked that f***** out, I was going to stamp on his head". He later complained that he had hurt his hand in punching the victim.
The victim was left with fractured ribs, a small puncture to his lung, bruising and swelling to his forehead and eye socket, two black eyes, a cut lip and bruising to his body. Mr Bunch said: "He said he was scared to leave the house and had panic attacks when there was a knock at the door.
"He resigned from his job because he was scared to be in public. He says his depression and PTSD got worse and his medication had to be increased. He was unable to move for the first two weeks."
Lang, 22, of Burn Closes Crescent, Wallsend, who has five previous convictions, pleaded guilty to GBH with intent and was jailed for four years and five months and given a five year restraining order.
The court heard that when shown the CCTV of his violence, Lang, who was wearing sandals at the time of the attack, couldn't believe what he had done. Jonathan Cousins, defending, said: "He understands his behaviour was completely unacceptable and he is genuinely remorseful. It's said he was not wearing footwear or hard footwear.
"He had an extremely unpleasant upbringing, he was neglected by his parents and taken into care. He is immature and lacks composure when faced with stresses."
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