A BARE-KNUCKLE boxer and former cage fighter was told to ‘keep his fists to himself’ as he avoided a prison sentence for attacking a woman outside a pub.

David Round, of Camuset Close in Hakin, was accused of attacking a woman in the car park of The Three Crowns pub in the early hours of July 2, 2022.

It was alleged that Round punched the woman to the floor, and, after being led away in an attempt to calm him down, returned and punched her to the ground again, before straddling her and raining “three or four” punches down on her whilst shouting racial slurs.

The 38-year-old denied the offences, but was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was cleared of the attack being racially motivated.

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Prosecutor Georgia Donohue said during the trial that a comment made by the victim's partner – who used to be in a relationship with the defendant’s wife – about the defendant needing to give up his fighting career “clearly got under Mr Round’s skin”.

“He was angry, he lost control of his emotions,” she said.

The victim sustained a black eye, bruising and swelling to her face, a cut lip and a cut finger.

During cross-examination, defence counsel David Leathley suggested the victim’s injuries would have been worse had she been attacked in this way by a “professional fighter”.

“No they wouldn’t because Mr Round loses most of his fights,” the victim replied.

“The punch to the face, specifically the black eye, I would suggest that is quite a significant injury,” Ms Donohue said. “Not one that would be caused by someone pulling two people apart.”

“This was a prolonged and persistent assault,” she added at the sentencing hearing.

The court heard that Round had convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm in 2009 after fracturing a man’s jaw and in 2013 for battery – both of which involved fights in nightclubs or pubs.

“It wasn’t the case that the defendant went there looking for trouble, but sadly he and trouble met once again,” Mr Leathley said.

He said the victim “wasn’t initially [Round’s] intended target”.

Mr Leathley said that there had been a significant delay in the case coming to trial, with Round being arrested on the day of the assault but not being charged until January this year.

“You are no stranger to fighting,” said Judge Huw Rees. “You have fought professionally for a number of years, at least 16 years, apparently engaging in 94 professional fights.

“I would have thought that you of all people, as a fighter, should have had installed in you a sense of discipline.

“The fact that you hit a lady is almost inconceivable in my view. Nobody should hit a woman. Nobody should hit anybody, let alone a woman.

“You yet again resorted to your fists in an inappropriate overreaction to a passing comment made in a public house.”

Round was sentenced to 21 months, suspended for two years. He must complete a Thinking Skills programme, a 120-day alcohol monitoring requirement, and 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He must pay £3,000 in compensation to the victim, who was also granted a five-year restraining order against him.