by Keith Hunt

A thug who launched a "cowardly" attack on another teenager by hitting him on the head from behind with a scaffolding pole has escaped being locked up.

Charlie Fuller wept in the dock but walked free smiling after a judge took into consideration that he would lose his job if sent into youth custody.

The 18-year-old tarmac worker, of Lower Road, Maidstone, was ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and pay his victim £600 compensation.

Fuller asked for more time to pay the amount, but Mr Recorder John McGuinness QC told him: "I expect it to be paid within two months from now. You have been very fortunate, don't chance your arm any further."

Maidstone Crown Court heard Fuller and victim Oliver Lawrence, 18, had known each other for about four years when they were both at a birthday party in North View, Maidstone, on June 23.

Keith Yardy, prosecuting, said the atmosphere changed when Fuller walked up to Mr Lawrence and poured a can of beer over his head.

Mr Lawrence was annoyed and there was a tussle in which he punched Fuller in the face. They started fighting before being split up.

The victim eventually left and was away from the house talking to friends when he suddenly blacked out. He came round to see an ambulance and police car.

He had a splitting headache. He was taken to Maidstone hospital, where a cut to the back of his head was glued.

Witnesses had seen Fuller take a scaffolding pole from a van and strike Mr Lawrence on the head.

Recorder McGuinness told Fuller, who admitted assault causing actual bodily harm: "It is astonishingly cowardly to walk up behind a man and hit him over the head with a scaffolding pole.

"This offence is deserving of an immediate sentence of custody. When I first read these papers I was absolutely satisfied the only proper sentence was immediate custody.

"But the sentence would be of the order of about a year. You would only serve half of that. I have to weigh up whether taking you out of the way for six months is the best way of dealing with you.

"Marginally, I have come to the conclusion it is not."