A man dubbed a gentle giant has escaped jail after assaulting and kicking a man on the ground outside a fast food outlet.

Jack Senchery-Evans, of Osborne Road, Southsea, was at Kingston Crown Court on Friday, April 16, to be sentenced for actual bodily harm, a charge he previously pleaded guilty to.

Senchery-Evans, 21, was outside Subway in Clarence Street, Kingston, when an argument began between a girl and the group he was with.

When the girl’s brother Toby Ryan stepped in, punches were thrown and Senchery-Evans delivered 10 to 20 kicks, including blows to the head, according.

Judge Shani Barnes said watching a man kick another on the ground on CCTV was awful, but said Mr Ryan’s injuries were not as bad as they looked.

Judge Barnes said: “I think what is so awful about this is it is so common that young men who, ostensibly, are going about their lives, behaving in a proper, orderly manner and looking forward to the future can, in a moment of weakness, change the course of their lives.”

She said: “That’s how, in the blink of an eye lid, lives are changed.”

She said that kicking someone on the ground, in the head, with shoes on, was tantamount to using a weapon.

Senchery-Evans was handed a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and 60 hours community service.

Judge Barnes said: “Whatever your normal persona is of being kind and gentle, that night, fuelled by drink, you like so many other young men did something really violent and in no way can you ever justify what you did.”