A JUDGE told a York defendant he was a lucky man after a jury acquitted him of going too far in a nightclub fight over a woman.

The prosecution alleged that Jonathan Lee Teale, 20, kicked and punched John Hales near the toilets of the Ikon and Diva club at Clifton Moor, York, on November 3, 2002.

Mr Teale told the jury he had only acted in self-defence after Mr Hales objected to him talking to his girlfriend Lindsey MacKinnon.

He described how both men had exchanged punches and fell to the floor together.

He denied the woman's allegations that he had tried to touch her up and said he was only chatting to her.

The jury acquitted him on a charge of actual bodily harm after deliberating for two-and-a-half hours.

"You are a lucky man," Judge Jim Spencer QC told Mr Teale after the verdict at York Crown Court.

"Don't forget that. You are discharged from here; don't ever come back again."

Mr Teale, of Mill Lane, Barlow, denied the charge. The trial lasted a day and a half.

Updated: 11:04 Saturday, May 17, 2003