A man attacked an island visitor in a Douglas nightclub after he objected to being lifted up, a magistrates’ court was told.
Neil Patrick Brogan, of Somerset Road, Douglas, admitted disorderly behaviour on licensed premises after the March 27 or 28 incident in the Outback.
An earlier charge of assault causing actual bodily harm was withdrawn.
James Robinson for the prosecution, said the club was packed with people following the Easter Athletics Festival, when Brogan picked up the other man, lifting him clear of the ground and squeezed him, ‘acting aggressively’.
A little later, Brogan was confronted in a corridor near to the downstairs bar area by the victim who told him: ‘You grabbbed me and restricted my breathing.’
The defendant said he was ‘only playing’ and enquired if the victim had a problem, Mr Robinson said.
At this point, Brogan ‘ran at the other man, with his chest puffed out’ and punched him to the ground.
The victim reported the incident to nightclub staff and pointed out Brogan who was then frog-marched from the premises and arrested by police.
At the police station, Brogan said there had been no altercation and denied making any contact with the victim but admitted swinging a punch towards the other man. He told police he did it because he had felt threatened.
The 35-year-old’s advocate, Jim Travers, said the victim had been an invited guest at the club and the defendant, himself a keen fell runner, was there with his wife who was also a runner.
‘The premises were packed and the dance floor, in particular was packed with guests and patrons,’ he said.
‘There was jostling and high jinks on the dance floor.
‘He might have lifted the man up partly to create some space on the floor,’ he said.
‘To him, it was not an incident. There had been drinking games and it was a rowdy but good atmosphere.’
He said the defendant was alone when he had been approached by a friend of the man on the dance floor and suddenly found himself surrounded by three strangers.
‘He did not recall the dance floor incident and he feared - and this could have been a misapprehension - that might be assaulted. He responded negatively then others intervened. It’s regrettable that his reaction was one of throwing a punch,’ he said.
Sentencing him, Magistrates’ chairman John Hellowell told him: ‘It was a foolish act, and I think you know that in hindsight. You should have walked away and you chose not to.’
He was fined £600 and ordered to pay £125 costs and £100 compensation to the victim.