A revenge attacker has been jailed for breaking another man’s skull after knocking him to the ground with a single sucker punch.

Jack Trendall believed that victim Aaron Jenkins had been part of a group which had attacked him in the centre of Newton Abbot and pursued him to a nearby garage.

A CCTV camera at the Shell station showed Mr Jenkins leaning on a sign near the till window and being completely unaware of Trendall as he approached him from behind.

He suffered a bleed on the brain which led to stroke like symptoms and left him needing two days of hospital treatment and unable to work for four months.

He was also too seriously injured to drive and was unable to visit his daughter, who lived with a former partner in Seaton.

Trendall, aged 25, of Courtenay Park, Newton Abbot, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for two years by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “The footage showed your approach from behind and to the side when Mr Jenkins was not suspecting you to approach him. You swung hard and knocked him to the ground.

“He fell onto the hard forecourt and sustained a significant injury. It was an unsuspected attack from behind. There may well have been a preceding altercation and you may well have felt aggrieved but you did not deal with it with words; you punched him.

“It was not in any way necessary or fair or reasonable to follow him. That was a loss of self-control and done to get revenge. It as revenge that far exceeded in its consequences what had happened to you.”

Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said the attack happened at 2.34am on August 22, 2020 at the Esso garage in East Street, Newton Abbot, where Mr Jenkins and two friends had gone to buy alcohol.

He was leaning on a sign while his friends were paying at the till window when he was knocked down by the surprise attack, which led to a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain.

He struggled to walk and his speech was affected for about six weeks and was unable to return full time to his work as a roller driver until January 2021.

He was unable to visit his daughter in Seaton for a time and could not compete in his favourite sport of moto-cross for a year. He now looks over his shoulder when he is out and about and no longer goes into town ‘with the lads’.

Trendall was not represented but told the judge he had been knocked out in an attack near the Clock Tower just moments earlier and followed the group of three men to the petrol station.

He said he had no intention of causing any serious injury and has apologised for what he did. He has given up drinking and is now living a stable life with his partner and is due to start a new job shortly.