A rugby player has been acquitted of grievous bodily harm following a nighttime street confrontation that left a man with a fractured skull.

Finlay Laing, 24, insisted he had acted in self-defence when he felled the 28-year-old with a single punch, causing him to bang his head on the ground.

And the seven-strong jury took just one hour and 25 minutes to delivered a unanimous not guilty verdict.

The complainant had suffered a fracture at the bottom of his skull and multiple bleeds on the brain. He took six months to recover.

Mr Laing, of Hope Street, Liverpool, denied the single count of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He had been a player for Birkenhead Park rugby club and had been out celebrating his winning try against Douglas in a match at Port-e-Chee on October 29, 2022 when he got caught up in the early hours confrontation outside the 1886 Bar.

The 6ft 2ins maths graduate who had been employed as an analyst since 2023, told the jury: ‘I wasn’t looking for a fight’.

He said he and his team-mates had been gone for drinks at Sam Webbs before moving onto the 1886 bar on Regent Street and reckoned he had been ‘six or seven’ out of 10 on the alcohol level but was fully aware of his surroundings.

Mr Laing said he had left the 1886 bar to look for his friends. He heard someone shout ‘look at the state of you’ and had then got involved in ‘verbal digs’ with a group who had then circled him as he entered an alleyway off Villiers Square.

‘It was simply banter’, he told the jury and didn’t think it would escalate. But then one of the group pushed him on his right shoulder using both hands.

He took a step back and then saw a second man approach him with arms raised, looking as if he was going to punch him. He said he had punched the man once to the face and saw him fall to the ground.

One of the group shouted at him ‘why did you do that?’ and a girl came up and advised him to leave.

Giving evidence, Mr Laing insisted he had acted proportionately and in reasonable self-defence. He said it had been an instant reaction to the threat of being assaulted by more than one person. Following the not guilty verdict, Deemster Graeme Cook apologised to the jurors over confusion about a judge’s direction they had been given.

He had clarified the direction at the request of the jury but then a new form of wording was handed to them - after they had reached a verdict but before they had delivered it.

Deemster Cook told them: ‘I’m sorry about the confusion. It should not have happened.’