A man claimed he had been acting in self-defence when he hit a woman outside a Coventry pub, knocking her out, despite the incident being partly captured by a CCTV camera.
The recording also showed Patrick Cottrell contemptuously kicking out at his unconscious victim as he walked away.
Despite that, he pleaded not guilty to assaulting Nicola Taylor until changing his plea to guilty on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court.
Cottrell (53) of Chiltern Court, Coundon, Coventry, was jailed for 14 months.
Prosecutor Graeme Simpson said that on March 24 Ms Taylor, who had been in an on-off relationship with Cottrell for three years, was in the Coventry Cross pub with her brother.
After her brother left, she and Cottrell, who was also in the city centre pub, came together, and ‘words were exchanged.’
Cottrell left, and Ms Taylor followed him and tried to talk to him as he got into a taxi, and as they argued he was told to get out by the driver.
They continued to argue, and he pushed her and punched her, knocking her to the ground unconscious, then contemptuously kicked her as he walked away.
Two men who had seen the incident rushed to her aid, and the police were called.
When Cottrell was arrested a few days later he claimed she had attacked him in the taxi, and that after getting out he had simply pushed her away, and she fell.
Mr Simpson said Cottrell had previous convictions for violence, and in 2015 he had been given a suspended sentence for inflicting grievous bodily harm on a man in the Coventry Cross.
He had followed his victim into the toilets where he had punched him to the ground before he and another man kicked him in what Judge Andrew Lockhart QC described as a homophobic attack.
Mohammed Riaz, defending, said: “Even if she was rendered unconscious, it was for a split moment.
“This is something which was not premeditated, but a spur-of-the-moment matter, and it was a short matter of 5-20 seconds.”
Mr Riaz said Cottrell was now in a new relationship, and their rented accommodation and his job would be at risk if he was jailed.
But sentencing Cottrell, Judge Lockhart told him: “You have a poor record, and a sharply relevant matter occurred in 2014 in the very same pub when you and another man went into the loos and carried out a homophobic attack.
“You were given a suspended sentence which would have ended in 2016. Within three years you were in that same pub and there was an altercation between you and Nicola Taylor.
“You left the pub and attempted to leave in a taxi, but you got out, having been thrown out.
“You tried to walk away, but what you then did instead of persisting in trying to walk away is that you turned and hit her with a clubbing punch to the face which rendered her unconscious.
“It is a significant feature of this offence that as she lay on the ground you drew your foot back and aimed a kick at her. It showed utter contempt for her.”
