A South African national who got caught up in a bar fight with an “obnoxious” punter was handed a £3,000 fine at the Supreme Court today.

Shaun Christian Mongie was sentenced after pleading guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an incident that took place in late October.

The defendant and his yacht crew were in O’Reilly’s in Ocean Village watching a rugby match when the victim started arguing with a member of Mongie’s crew. He started getting obnoxious and grew aggressive and, even though Mongie bought him a beer and asked him to leave, he started getting abusive towards the women in Mongie’s group. Mongie hit the complainant on his head with a glass, which caused a wound and a loss of blood, after he got into a fight with someone else in Mongie’s group.

While sentencing, Puisne Judge Karen Ramagge Prescott said: “Your actions were protective and you tried to diffuse an intense situation, instinct took over and your action was in defence of others.”

She added that in the context of self-defence, a weapon in the form of a glass was still used against the complainant, adding that this was an isolated and unfortunate incident.

Mrs Justice Prescott accepted that the defendant had shown remorse, had no previous convictions, is of good character, and was in a hurry to return to South Africa where his wife is six months pregnant with their first child.

While not condoning Mongie’s actions, she refused compensation for the victim because “he went out searching for a fight”.

Mongie was fined £3,000 and this will be taken from the £5,000 deposit which he paid to the courts when he was released on bail.

Johann Fernandez appeared for the prosecution and Patrick Canessa appeared for the defendant.