Boxing champ para admits flooring sergeant in Colchester bar (From Gazette)

Boxing champ para admits flooring sergeant in Colchester bar

10:00am Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

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A PARATROOPER and Army boxing champion has been banned from pubs and clubs for six months, after breaking a colleague’s jaw.

Anthony Flynn, of 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, admitted punching a fellow soldier in Colchester town centre.

Flynn, 21, a former pupil at Thurstable School, Tiptree, is a heavyweight in 3 Para’s boxing team and won the decisive round to clinch the Army boxing championships for the unit last year.

Flynn, originally from Tiptree, punched Sgt Matthew Yates to the ground, in Yates’s Wine Lodge in the High Street, on May 14 last year.

The attack left Sgt Yates, of Seventh Parachute Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, with a broken jaw and swollen face.

CCTV images of the attack were shown during the sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday.

Flynn knocked Sgt Yates to the ground and hit him at least two or three more times. It is not known exactly what caused the assault.

Mark Lakin, prosecuting, said the attack had had a lasting effect on Sgt Yates, causing him to lose respect among colleagues.

Andrew Jackson, mitigating, speaking of Flynn, said: “This is a man who has always attempted to strive for the best. He has lost £20,000 for the next two years because his promotion will be put on hold for two years.”

Sentencing Flynn, Judge Christopher Ball QC said excellent references from his superior officers had convinced him he was generally of good character.

He said: “For no reason I can see, tempers were lost. You lost yours and struck him to the ground.

“Soldiers are not above the law. You do not escape punishment simply because of the duties you perform.”

Flynn, of Merville Barracks, Colchester, admitted causing grievous bodily harm. He was banned from licensed premises for six months, ordered to complete 80 hours community service and told to pay £1,000 of compensation to his victim.