A DRUNKEN lout head-butted a man during a violent rampage outside a house before smashing up two cars with rocks.

Alcoholic drug addict Craig Young was set to stand trial for the assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of damaging property at an address in Abingdon.

At Oxford Crown Court today the 31-year old from Balfour Road, Oxford, instead had a change of heart and admitted all three counts.

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Detailing events, prosecutor Richard Sedgwick said that the violent outburst took place at about 6.30pm on January 28, 2017, and had a ‘domestic flavour’.

He said that Young had driven to the area in order to borrow cash from a friend and while he was there he spotted his victim, who was the new partner of his ex, coming out of her home.

Drunk, Young then got into a row with the man in full view of his ex-partner’s children, who were also at the house that night.

He told his ex's new partner that he had ‘ruined his life’ before the pair ‘grappled’ with each other.

During the fight, Young lunged his head forward and headbutted the other man, leaving him with a broken nose.

Young then picked up a stone from a wall and smashed the man’s front windscreen.

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After the man retreated back into the house Young took another chunk from the wall and lobbed it at the windscreen of another car that belonged to his ex-partner.

He then fled the scene before police were called and he was later arrested.

Despite initially telling officers he had acted out of ‘self-defence’ he admitted the charges yesterday.

The court also heard at the hearing that Young has a number of previous convictions, made up of six convictions for 13 offences, and he is currently subject to a suspended sentence for drink-driving.

In mitigation his defence barrister Rebecca Penfold said that her client had long struggled with an addiction to alcohol and cocaine but was determined to turn his life around.

She said: “It is an addiction he has had for many years and it is something he can’t simply change overnight.

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“It is a struggle and it will be a long struggle for the rest of his life.”

She urged the court to consider imposing a non-custodial sentence so Young could continue rehabilitation and tackle his addiction and added that, since the offence, he had been engaging well with the National Probation Service.

Judge Zoe Smith adjourned the case so that further information could be obtained about his current accommodation before she could sentence him.

As Young was released on bail, however, she warned him: “This is a serious matter, a very serious matter. I do take the view that this is a matter for a custodial sentence.”

The case was adjourned until March 6 for sentencing.