A TEENAGER who launched a ferocious attack on a customer in a burger bar queue was lucky not to be facing a murder charge, a court was told.
Recorder Gareth Evans QC said victims of violence often died after falling to the ground and striking their heads.
He gave 19-year-old Richard McDermott five months' detention after he admitted unlawfully wounding Lee Poole.
Mr Poole was butted in the face and knocked unconscious when he hit the pavement.
The defendant followed up with "ferocious" kicks to the head, said Tim Sapwell, prosecuting. The victim was treated in hospital for concussion and had eight stitches in a 15cm head wound.
The attack happened in the early hours of New Year's Day in New Road, Kidderminster.
Mr Poole was with friends in the queue and McDermott, who had been drinking, thought he had made a derogatory remark about his girlfriend, Michelle Reynolds.
Richard Bond, defending, said McDermott, of Gould Avenue East, Birchen Coppice, Kidderminster, was sensitive because it was the couple's first night out after the birth of their daughter just before Christmas.
A previous hearing of the case had been postponed for a psychiatric report after McDermott had complained of "hearing voices." But it had been established that he was not suffering from any mental illness.
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