A SERVING soldier has been ordered to pay compensation to a complete stranger who he knocked out in a mistaken identity attack.

 Jimmie Jessup thought the 18-year-old victim had been part of a group which had argued with a friend in a Newton Abbot pub but he got the wrong man.

CCTV showed him going up to the victim on the road outside the town’s bus station and spinning him round before knocking him unconscious with a single punch to the jaw. 

The 18-year-old was pole-axed and he suffered a bleed on the brain when his head hit the road way. A passing driver had to take evasive action as he lay motionless on the ground. 

He needed hospital treatment for brain injuries including bruising and internal bleeding and needed four months off work. He said in a victim statement that the injury changed him from a fun loving teenager into someone who was fearful and isolated.

Jessup was in Devon visiting his girlfriend while on leave and had been drinking at the Market Gate pub before carrying out the attack.

 A Judge at Exeter Crown Court told the paratrooper the attack was dreadful and appalling and it was pure luck that the victim had not died or been even more seriously injured. 

Jessup, aged 23, of Circular Road, Colchester, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for ten months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid community work and pay £3,500 compensation.

 Judge Timothy Rose told him: ‘This was a terrible incident and one cannot view the CCTV without being jolted by it.

‘It was awful but it was a single punch.

 ‘When you punch somebody like that, you cannot control whether they live or die.

‘It is pure good fortune the injury was not more serious. What you did was just dreadful and aggravated by the fact you were drunk.’

 Mr Tom Bradnock, prosecuting, said the 18-year-old victim was stood on his own checking bus times on his phone when Jessup approached from behind and knocked him out with a single punch. 

He was taken to hospital and discharged but re-admitted after suffering symptoms of brain injury and being diagnosed with bruising and bleeding by a CT scan.

Texts found on Jessup’s phone showed he had been looking for someone who had been involved in a confrontation with a friend of his at the Market Gate pub earlier in the evening.

Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said Jessup is remorseful and has saved £500 towards compensation. He hopes to remain in 3 Para but will be subject to army discipline as a result of his conviction.

He plans to retrain as an HGV driver or a roofer when he leaves the military. He has no previous convictions and excellent references and an unblemished service career.