A PENSIONER used a baseball bat to fight off a drunken intruder who was attacking his grandson, a court heard yesterday.

The man, in his 80s, was woken in the early hours of the morning by the sound of his grandson wrestling downstairs with another teenager.

The intruder had followed his grandson into the house, South Durham Youth Court was told.

The 17-year-old attacker, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted affray and criminal damage at South Durham Youth Court.

He was given a three-month referral order by magistrates and ordered to pay £150 compensation and £35 costs.

Derek Walton, prosecuting, said the grandson had left the Mardi Gras nightclub, in Darlington, and walked to his grandfather's house last Saturday, where he found the youth, who he knew by sight, waiting at the door.

"The defendant forced the door using his hands and grabbed (the grandson) round the throat," said Mr Walton.

He said the pair then fought in the hallway and the dining room for 20 minutes.

Jon Wager, in mitigation, said the defendant had been very drunk and had come off worse.

"The grandfather came down the stairs with a baseball bat or something of that nature and struck my client with it," he said.

He and his grandson barricaded themselves in the dining room and called police, while the youth bashed the door with a golf club.

Mr Wager said the youth accepted that the whole incident had arisen through his own stupidity.