A DRUNK partygoer has avoided jail for a ‘one punch offence’ that left his victim with a scar on his face.

Joshua Dickens, 26, was sentenced at Warrington Magistrates' Court on July 20, having previously pled guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Dickens, in May of this year, punched a man in his own home after having been ejected from a house party.

The defendant had been kicked out of the party earlier that night for being too intoxicated, before returning having forgotten his phone.

Prosecuting, Yvonne Dobson, told the court how when Dickens tried to return, the people hosting the party blocked him at the door.

A scuffle broke out at the door, and Dickens threw a punch over another person’s shoulder, striking the victim in the face.

In a personal statement, the court heard how this had left a scar. The victim said about their scar: “I feel very self-conscious and worry what people will think about me when they see it.”

This is not Dickens’ first time in trouble with the courts, as he has six previous convictions for 12 separate offences, having last offended in February of 2022.

This includes a previous ABH charge in July of 2020, and previous fines to the court totalling more than £1,000.

Defending Dickens, Gary Schooler pointed to previous issues with his mental health and substance abuse as reasons for his criminal past.

This however had subsided as he had since given up drugs. After this incident, he has also since given up alcohol.

Mr Schooler admitted that there were ‘reasonable grounds under which he was asked to leave.’

He said: “He realised he had left his phone behind, and there was an altercation at the threshold.”

He went on to say that Dickens, of Ashtons Green Drive, St Helens, had made a decision to ‘change his life around’.

“The Josh Dickens you see before you today is not the Josh Dickens who committed this offence”, he said.

Chair magistrate Paul Chadwick said: “You will not be receiving an immediate custodial sentence today.

“I hope you do not come back to this court; I consider you as having a good prospect of rehabilitation.

“You have changed your life around. I mention that because if you come into this court again for any reason, you will go to prison.”

Dickens received a four-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, as well as 128 days of alcohol abstinence monitoring, and 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He will also pay £478, including fines, a statutory surcharge and compensation to the victim.