A VIGILANTE who headbutted a noisy teenager in his block of flats was jailed for 12 months yesterday.

Paul Bennett, 43, told police that he was woken at midnight by the 16-year-old banging and kicking on a neighbour’s door, and he reacted because he had been plagued by rowdy youths.

Bennett headbutted the teenager, leaving him with a badly-injured nose which needed hospital treatment, said Sue Jacobs, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court.

His victim, Andrew Allport, told police that he was shouting through his grandmother’s letterbox at the flats in Middlesbrough because he was concerned for her safety after she did not reply to his knocking.

Mr Allport said: “A man came out saying ‘What the **** are you playing at?’, and I said that I was at my nana’s trying to get my bike.

“The man went back into his flat and he came out with what I thought was a wooden bedpost and he swung it at me. I stepped back and it missed, and then he headbutted me in the face.”

Miss Jacobs said that the force of the blow knocked the teenager through the communal doors leading to the stairs, and he ran off to contact the police.

Bennett was interviewed and said he was woken by banging and went to confront the person.

He said he had had trouble before with youths.

Bennett had two previous convictions for violence, for wounding a police officer with intent to cause grievous bodily harm in 1983, and in 2002 for assaulting his partner, which left her with a fractured cheekbone.

Richard Bennett, mitigating, said that Bennett lived in a high-crime area, and the flats had suffered significant trouble from youngsters in the early hours.

Complaints had been made to the landlord Coast and Country Housing, and to the police.

Bennett said he heard banging and he saw the teenager kicking and shouting in front of the door.

He said it was one headbutt, and the young man went away.

Judge Michael Taylor told Bennett: “I accept that you live in an area which has its problems.

“Your response to this young man was to confront him. You must know from your past experience in court that once you behave in that way, you leave the court with no alternative as to your disposal.”

Bennett, of Lancaster House, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to the February 4 actual bodily harm assault.