Two teenagers left a man with a fractured eye socket and nose in an attack in the city after he tried to intervene in a dispute branded a "play fight".
Shlok Rodriguez-Guerra, 19, and a 17-year-old - who cannot be named for legal reasons - repeatedly punched the man who was also kicking him to the ground during the violent confrontation on Riverside.
Norwich Crown Court was told the 23-year-old student had stepped in after seeing a group of youths in what appeared to be a fight close to Estabulo, beside Lady Julian Bridge, on March 26.
Instead the group turned on him, punching him to the head and face and pursuing him as he attempted to escape.
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Philip Farr, prosecuting, said his intervention in what had in fact been a play fight had been “taken badly”.
Rodriguez-Guerra had begun to push and shove him and the 17-year-old squared up before the man threw a punch that was “undoubtedly the catalyst for what followed”.
They then launched a “sustained assault” which included him being held in a headlock while being repeatedly punched.
When he eventually fled to a nearby flat, the 17-year-old had attempted to force his way in and had threatened to kill him, said Mr Farr.
Both teenagers pleaded guilty to assault occasioning grievous bodily harm over the attack which left the man with blurred vision and hand-eye coordination problems.
Judge Anthony Bate said it had been a “spontaneous incident of drunken violence”.
He sentenced Rodriguez-Guerra, of Guardian Road in Norwich, to 10 months suspended for 18 months with alcohol abstinence monitoring and unpaid work.
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The younger teen was made the subject of an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.
Michael Clare, mitigating, said their victim had thrown the first punch but “clearly they went too far”.
“It isn’t something they planned or wanted,” he added.
Andrew Oliver, for the younger teen, said his actions had been “impulsive and over zealous”.
“He recognises what he did was wrong and he apologises for it,” he said.
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