A SOUTHAMPTON man who left a warehouse worker with a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain and a lacerated lip has begun a 15-month jail sentence.

A judge told Wayne Atkin that his problem was that he became violent whenever he drank to excess.

The city crown court heard how victim Joel Kirkland, 18, was left unconscious in Bedford Place as he made his way home from a nightclub at 2.30am and was involved in an incident with Atkin.

The 23-year-old, from Whitestone Close, Millbrook , admitted wounding.

Mitigating, Darren Bartlett said because both men had been drinking it wasn’t known whether Mr Kirkland fell because of a punch or a push, but Atkin accepted responsibility in some way.