A TEENAGER fractured the skull of a friend and inflicted a five centimetre gash in the back of the head of another in a “fearsome” baseball bat attack.

Having drunk “16 or 17” bottles of lager, Corey Oats told police “I was off my head” - and he is beginning a sentence of six years and eight months in a youth offenders’ institution.

Nineteen-year-old Oats, of Risca Road, Cross Keys, wrote to Judge Jeremy Jenkins to try to explain his actions, and admitted they “frightened the living daylights out of me”.

Before he was charged in March, he sought help from mental health services and attended a stress control course, Newport Crown Court was told.

But Judge Jenkins - while noting Oats’ age, previous good character, guilty plea, his letter, and several “glowing testimonials” - said a long term of youth detention was inevitable.

“These offences resulted in serious injuries being sustained by two young men,” he said.

“Bad though it is, it could have been so much worse. You picked up a fearsome weapon and struck him (the first victim) across the forehead for no good reason while he could not defend himself.

“He had a bleed on the brain. You could have killed him.”

Of Oats’ second victim, Judge Jenkins said: “He tried to reason with you. You attacked him and caused a very serious laceration.”

Prosecuting counsel Jason Howells told the court that Oats and his two victims had been friends “on and off for some time”. On October 7 last year, after a party they were to attend was cancelled, they bought lager and partied instead at Oats’ home. Members of his family were present.

The atmosphere was good, but in the early hours of October 8 Oats and his first victim argued over what Mr Howells called “a suggested relationship” the latter could have with a woman - Oats’ mother’s friend - who was present.

Shortly afterwards Oats took the bat from the kitchen, and struck his first victim forcibly on the forehead. A second swing connected unintentionally with the woman.

The man described feeling “searing pain” and his ears were ringing. He stumbled from the house. Oats followed and his second victim tried to calm him down, but was hit with the bat. A head wound required six stitches.

No longer feeling safe, he has since moved from Risca, and feels depressed and mentally affected by the incident.

Oats told police he was “off his head” on lager, and had not liked his first victim’s comments about his mother’s friend.

Defence counsel Andrew Jones said Oats accepted he faced an immediate sentence of imprisonment. He pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and to unlawful wounding.

He said Oats - who takes part in charity fundraising activities and helped provide extra-curricular activities for seven-11 year-olds - was genuinely remorseful and took “immediate steps to address what caused him to act like that.”

“This brief moment of madness will leave a mark against him that will last a lifetime. These offences are inexplicable to him and to those who know him,” said Mr Jones.