A former strongman, who was once acquitted of murder, has avoided an immediate jail sentence after he assaulted a pub customer while working as a bouncer.

Marvin Service, a power lifter, punched Daniel Lupton several times.

A judge told him: “You should never – and I repeat never – be a doorman again. Temperamentally, you are not a fit and proper person to do so.”

The victim made a determined effort to get into The Queen Charlotte bar in Rochester High Street on January 25, 2015.

Maidstone Crown Court heard he had been stabbed and believed his attacker was inside.

Prosecutor Edmund Fowler said Mr Lupton was “animated, aggressive and goading for a fight”.

He punched Service, of Lynton Road South, Gravesend, who grabbed him.

CCTV footage showed Service and fellow doormen Sean Kennedy, 29, and Kieran O’Kane, 23, taking the victim to the ground.

Service sat on his chest for 15 minutes until police arrived.

Judge Jeremy Carey said although Service, 41, initially acted properly, he then went too far.

“You did what you should not have done – and that was to retaliate and go over the top,” he said.

Terence Boulter, defending, said father-of-one Service had not worked as a doorman since that evening.

Service admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, and was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Not-guilty pleas by Mr Kennedy, of Whinfell Way, Gravesend, and Mr O’Kane, of Windmill Street, Gravesend, were accepted.

Service was convicted with three others in 2009 of murdering Ted Shaxted in Northfleet and jailed for life, but the conviction was later quashed by the Appeal Court.