A former soldier has escaped jail for an unprovoked attack after a judge heard he was suffering from combat stress after serving in Afghanistan. Robert Ford was a boy soldier who joined the army on his 16th birthday and now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder as a result of what he experienced while serving in Helmand with the Royal Corps of Signals. He was spared jail for an attack on a fellow customer in a McDonald's queue in Exeter after the judge heard how he is now working with service charities to overcome the psychological damage. Ford, aged 26, broke the jaw of student Thomas Meuse with a single punch during a petty argument in the queue at the High Street fast food shop in Exeter. Mr Meuse, from Broadclyst, was celebrating his 21st birthday when he suffered an injury which needed an operation to repair and left him unable to eat normally for six weeks. Ford, of Pinhoe Road, Exeter, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for 12 months, suspended for a year and ordered to pay £3,000 compensation and £340 costs by Judge Elizabeth Rylands at Exeter Crown Court. She told him she was able to spare him from an immediate sentence because he has already worked with the charity Combat Stress to alleviate his post traumatic stress disorder by going on their Warrior Programme. She said: "I have read a report from Combat Stress and a pre-sentence report which set out graphically the fact that you have developed post traumatic stress disorder as a result of your very significant service in the military. "It is clear it has had a terrible impact. You understand what it feels like to be afflicted with that and have taken steps to assist yourself through the Warrior Programme, which has gone a huge way towards setting you on the path to rehabilitation. "You have continued to take advantage of this programme and gone on to support others as well. This was a serious offence but in these very exceptional circumstances I am able to suspend the sentence. "Society will be better served by your rehabilitation. You have been a very distinguished soldier who has fallen prey to the terrible effects of what you witnessed in combat." David Bowen, prosecuting, said Ford had been drinking before going to the takeaway in the early hours, where he was standing in front of the victim in the queue. They exchanged words, which were friendly at first, but then turned into a petty argument which ended in him landing a single blow to the other man's jaw. Mr Bowen said the victim, who was celebrating his birthday, went home but was in such pain he was taken to hospital where he needed an operation to mend his broken jaw. James Calderbank, defending, said Ford works and a telecoms engineer and has been struggling to save up to pay compensation for the past six months and has raised £3,500. He said he enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals when he was just 16 and served for seven years until leaving after returning from Afghanistan in late 2011. He said he has attended the three-day Warrior Programme run by the charity Combat Stress as well as two refresher courses and has joined a support group called the Devon Military Veteran Volunteers, in which he helps others. He said the courses have helped him to stop using alcohol as a form of escape and he now only drinks responsibly in a social context. He said: "He has grown up and realised that sort of behaviour is puerile and is not going to be tolerated."
