<p><br /> A special constable who assaulted an off-duty soldier while attempting to arrest him was jailed for three years today.<br /> </p><p><br /> 40-year-old Peter Lightfoot attacked Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall outside a bar in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in the early hours of July 27, 2008.<br /> </p><p><br /> The incident was caught on CCTV, which showed Lightfoot pushing the soldier's head into the ground and striking him with a police helmet.<br /> </p><p><br /> He was found guilty of the assault on the soldier, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, by a jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court last month.<br /> </p><p><br /> Lightfoot has now been jailed for one year for perjury, in relation to evidence he gave in court, and two years for assault, to run consecutively.<br /> </p><p><br /> Two other officers involved in the incident, Sergeant Stephen Russell, 34, and Pc Richard Kelsall, 29, were cleared of assaulting the soldier.<br /> </p>
