A TEENAGER got drunk on his birthday and barged into a house to carry out a revenge beating, a court heard.

Bolton Crown Court was told how Dylan Yorke believed his victim, Jamie Martindale, had been part of a gang who attacked him several months earlier.

So on February 5, after celebrating his birthday, he went to Kelly Swanton’s home in Johnson Fold Avenue at lunchtime.

Steven Wild, prosecuting, said Yorke went into the kitchen, where Mr Martindale, with his back to him, was preparing food.

After hitting his victim over the head from behind, Yorke punched him several times before walking out again, leaving Mr Martindale with a cut left eye and mouth, chipped tooth and swollen face.

When arrested by police, Yorke, of Worston Avenue, Johnson Fold, claimed he remembered going to the house but did not remember hitting Mr Martindale.

Mr Wild said: “It was clear that Mr Yorke was looking for, and singled out, Mr Martindale. It was an unprovoked attack.”

Yorke, aged 19, pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm.

Mark Friend, defending, said Yorke had held Mr Martindale partly responsible for a previous assault on him, adding: “He exacted what can only be regarded as an element of revenge.”

He said that Yorke is not usually a violent man but the incident was the “culmination of a number of factors.”

“He has learnt a valuable lesson from these court proceedings,” he added.

Recorder Paul Reid QC told Yorke he had attacked his victim in a cowardly manner, showing little remorse.

“Your attitude is you would rather go to prison than do unpaid work,” he told Yorke.

Yorke was sentenced to do 150 hours of unpaid work and will be subject to an electronically tagged 8.30pm to 6.30am curfew.