Personal trainer on £100,000 a year avoids tag after knocking out a man in case clients see it

A personal trainer on almost £100,000 a year who beat a man unconscious has escaped being given an electronic tag because his clients would see it on his ankle.

Jake Toriyen, 21, attacked Paul Monnes after he accidentally bumped into him on a dancefloor.

Toriyen "saw the red mist" and repeatedly punched Monnes in the head before knocking him out with a uppercut.

Monnes was rushed to hospital on a spinal board following the attack in Alexanders nightclub in Worcester on March 17 last year.

The victim told police officers: “My jaw and cheek were hurting and felt like it was hanging off.”

Toriyen claimed he acted in self-defence but was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a trial at Worcester Crown Court.

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He was handed an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to pay Monnes £2,500 compensation.

Toriyen, of Worcester, was also told to wear an electronic tag but the judge scrapped the order following an appeal by the personal trainer who earns £8,000-a-month.

Sentencing him on January 19, Judge Jim Tindall told him: “You have to wear gym kit and it would be perfectly obvious if you were wearing a tag which would make it very difficult for your young and growing business.

Tindall said he “trusted” Toriyen to not need a tag and said he realised a court-imposed curfew would be “academic” because of the current lockdown.

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Addressing Toriyen, the judge said: “As I may well have said to the jury, this is a very unusual case.

“What appears to have happened is that Monnes was dancing in a slightly drunk, slightly foolhardy way as people tend to do.

“For no particular reason at all the red mist descended upon you.

“This was not a one-off punch. Even after he went down you went in for the last punch which was a particularly violent thing to do.”

He added that Monnes had suffered both physical and psychological injuries that had “cast a shadow over him” ever since the attack.

Andrew Davidson, prosecuting, said: “The victim was plainly drunk and had bumped into the defendant on a couple of occasions before the attack.

“It’s then that the defendant lashes out and strikes Moones to the side of the back of the head three times with quick, rapid-fire punches before he dealt an uppercut with such force it rendered him completely unconscious.”

Monnes came to and managed to stagger to his feet and left the club in a taxi before going to Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

Davidson said: “There was a suspicion there was a spinal injury but there was not.

“He had bruising to his right eye and his forehead and quite significant swelling to the right side of his face.

“He suffered amnesia as a result of the incident. He also needed dental work. He has been having nightmares about being assaulted.”