One-punch case: Raymond Tony Caban jailed in Tamworth court for Willow Tree one-punch assault

Raymond Tony Caban was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in Tamworth Local Court after his three-hour hearing - set down for this week - was abandoned.

The case was relisted in court on Thursday and prosecutors withdrew a charge of reckless grievous bodily harm (GBH).

Caban was accused of a one-punch attack at a house in Willow Tree on November 8, last year. He had maintained he was not guilty of causing GBH.

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Caban, who has been in custody since the night of the assault, pleaded guilty to an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Magistrate Joy Boulos found special circumstances in her sentencing, and accepted the plea to the back-up charge.

She imposed a 12-month sentence with a minimum of six months non-parole.

After time served, Caban will walk onto parole in May.

Solicitor Garry Johnston took over the case earlier this year and previously told the court he had been in discussions with the prosecution in a bid to resolve the case.

In February, he told the court the hearing was centred on an "issue [that] is a very narrow one".

"Whether the injury gets to GBH," Mr Johnston said at the time.

The definition of GBH, and the issue of self-defence have been raised in the case previously.

Detectives had claimed a 28-year-old man was hit in the face and knocked unconscious between 12.15am and 1.10am on November 8 at Willow Tree.

It was the police case Caban, 28, was drinking with a group at a Willow Tree home when he turned on the victim and struck him in the face.

The 28-year-old victim was rushed to Quirindi hospital before being transported in a critical condition to Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital by the region's Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

He recovered shortly after and was released from hospital. It was the police case that the pair were known to one another.

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