Canterbury Crown Court, where Wood was sentenced

by Paul Hooper

Life for economics expert Robert Harris-Dean changed forever at 2am on October 14 last year... because of one vicious punch.

The 29-year-old analyst had been out with friends in Ramsgate – when he was attacked by a total stranger.

That punch from teenage thug Jack Wood sent the innocent Mr Harris-Dean to the floor with such a thud he suffered a fractured skull.

Now a judge has heard that the brilliant mathematician suffered bleeding to his brain, needed an operation – and now struggles to write and to speak.

And his attacker Wood, a London Underground maintenance engineer, has been sent to a young offender’s institute for 20 months for the unprovoked attack.

Wood, of Allenby Road, Ramsgate had pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm during a fracas outside a chip shop on Ramsgate Seafront.

Prosecutor Jim Harvey told Canterbury Crown Court how Mr Harris-Dean had been with friends to a 60th birthday party at the Yacht Club in Ramsgate.

Some of the group then went to the Royal Public House nearby after the party to have more drinks before heading to a nearby chip shop.

The prosecutor said that one of the group got into an argument near a taxi rank with two other people when punches were thrown by Joshua Hall.

The court heard that he “decided impulsively and with a sense of some kind of bravado or childishness” to become involved in the argument.

Mr Hall was “aggressive and very drunk and very abusive” towards the other group but later realised the "stupidity of his behaviour” and approached the other group to apologise.

“Mr Harris-Dean had done absolutely nothing wrong but was just in the first group.

"At this point Wood, who also had nothing to do with the earlier incident, approached the group and without any warning struck Mr Harris-Dean to the head – knocking him unconscious.

“As he collapsed his head struck very, very forcibly the floor. It was immediately apparent that he had suffered a substantial injury as blood began coming from his head.

“Wood, having thrown that punch, then made his escape,” he added.

"this is an extremely tragic case. no term of imprisonment will right the wrongs suffered by the victim" – simon taylor, defending wood

The victim was rushed to King’s College hospital needing “specialist intervention” and was placed into an induced coma – suffering from a fractured skull and multiple bleeding to his brain.

“During his treatment he had to have part of his skull removed in order to relieve the pressure on his brain and had to be kept in his induced coma for some time afterwards.

“After he regained consciousness it became clear he had no memory of the incident and had difficulties with his balance, and suffered memory loss and problems with his cognitive abilities, “ said Mr Harvey.

The victim will need assistance for "at least" the next 18 months and still needs reconstruction surgery for his skull.

“He has difficulty writing now. He can write but only do it extremely slowly and needs to concentrate hard. Despite being a man who was highly educated he now struggles to find the right words when he speaks.

“Mr Harris-Dean has also been told he will have to re-learn a lot of his motor skills and it isn’t immediately clear how much of those skills he will recover in their entirety, including his mathematics skills, “said the prosecutor.

Simon Taylor, defending, said: “This is an extremely tragic case. No term of imprisonment will right the wrongs suffered by the victim.

“The defendant went out on the evening and threw one punch, which was an awful thing to do. He bitterly regrets what he did.”

Judge Heather Norton said Mr Harris-Dean had done “nothing whatsoever wrong that night”

But she criticised Mr Hall whose “behaviour had triggered the catastrophic events”.

She added: “He bears some of the responsibility for what subsequently happened; not a criminal responsibility but certainly a moral one. I have read his statement and he fully understands that the fault lies with him.”