Problem drinker jailed for punching youth unconscious

A MAN was jailed for 15 months after a court heard he attacked a teenager leaving him unconscious with a fractured skull.

Adam Phillips saw his 16-year-old victim drinking with friends in the back garden of the teenager’s home in Wakefield in June and later invited them back to his address in Doncaster Road, to continue drinking.

But as the evening progressed, after he had been drinking heavily, another youth present noticed him punching his fist into his palm aggressively, Richard Smith prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court.

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The teenager decided at about 11pm that it was time to go but when he got to the stairs Phillips suddenly punched him to the right side of the head and followed that with seven or eight more blows.

His next recollection was waking up in hospital but one of his friends who witnessed the attack said when the teenager was punched he struck his head against the wall and fell to the floor unconscious where he was punched again.

A girl who was present ran for help and the police were called. The teenager was taken to hospital and found to have a depressed fracture of the skull.

Mr Smith told the court he had recovered but still felt uneasy going out in company.

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Phillips, 25, admitted causing him grievous bodily harm. The court heard at the time he was serving a community order for an offence of battery when he pushed a previous girlfriend and as part of that had to attend an eight day “Stop Binge Drinking” Programme.

Jailing Phillips, Recorder Simon Jackson QC said that sentence had clearly not worked since within a short period he was involved in a sustained and savage attack on the 16-year-old.

Kama Melly for Phillips told the court he now appreciated probation officers were right to identify drinking as a problem for him on his last appearance and had taken steps himself to drastically reduce his intake.

He had also expressed “real regret and remorse for his behaviour that night.”