A MAN jailed for beating up a teenager and then leaving him in a Southampton playground, where he was found in a pool of blood, has been given permission to appeal against his conviction.

Scott Townson, 20, of Radcliffe Road, Northam, was handed a seven-year jail term in February after a jury found him guilty of Luke Woolf ’s manslaughter.

Luke, 18, suffered serious head injuries during the attack at a Southampton hostel in October 2008. He died five months after the attack from pneumonia after never waking from a coma.

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At sentencing the court was told that if Townson behaved well behind bars he could serve only half his sentence, and with the days he had already served on remand being taken into account, he could be released as early as April 2012.

Now Townson has launched a bid to clear his name at London’s High Court after one judge heard his appeal application and decided that there are sufficient grounds for a full hearing.

That hearing will now be heard in front of two or more judges at London’s High Court, which could involve calling some of the original witnesses again.

The hearing will not be held before October this year.

Townson was found guilty after the court heard how, high on a cocktail of lager, cider, Ecstacy and cocaine, he attacked Luke at the Rainbow Project hostel in Radcliffe Road, Northam, after finding him in his lounge. Luke, a previous resident, had been banned from the home but never handed back his keys.

Jurors heard how Townson then put his bleeding victim on his bike but watched as he got just a few yards before falling off. He dragged him across the pavement and left him in a children’s park, jurors were told.

It was Townson’s girlfriend who called the emergency services two hours later, by which time Luke was already in a coma.

Townson had claimed that he had acted only in self-defence after the teenager attacked him in the house.

Judge Keith Cutler, sentencing Townson at Winchester Crown Court in February, said: “You showed him no pity, you had no remorse for what you had done.”

Luke’s family said that they had been made aware of the appeal and were still trying to come to terms with the loss of a much-loved family member.