A PADGATE teen who assaulted a man and left him needing to be put into an induced coma will face sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court.

Rio Acomb punched his victim to the floor during an altercation outside a takeaway on Bridge Street, knocking him unconscious.

The victim was said to have been on a night out in Warrington town centre at the time of the incident on April 1 last year.

Facing serious charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, the 19-year-old appeared before Warrington Magistrates Court on Wednesday sporting a pair of tracksuit bottoms and trainers for trial. However, before trial proceedings began, he changed his plea to guilty.

Prosecuting, Lynne Sayers told the bench that following a night out, the victim attended a takeaway on Bridge Street before falling into an altercation with three men, one of them bring Acomb.

CCTV footage from a business showed the men having a verbal disagreement and at one point the victim had to be held back.

Suddenly Acomb steps forward and punches the victim, a man, to the ground where he lays unconscious.

Ms Sayers said: “It was a forceful strike and a deliberate strike.”

An ambulance and paramedics attended and rushed the victim to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool where he was put into an induced coma, with doctors fearing he had suffered a brain injury.

The man was unconscious for a total of 10 hours following the assault and was brought out of the coma, having actually suffered a bump to the back of the head and a cut.

Mr Palmer, defending, said in earlier CCTV footage it shows the victim having to be held back by his friends during the verbal altercation between himself and the defendant.

He also highlighted the young age of his client, having only been 18 at the time of the incident and with only one previous conviction which was unrelated to the current.

Chair of the bench Alfred Bean said the assault was too serious for a magistrates’ court to pass a sentence and escalated the case to Liverpool Crown Court. The hearing will take place on March 13.

Acomb was granted unconditional bail in the meantime.