A BASINGSTOKE teenager has described how he punched the victim of a brutal gang attack and then kicked him as he lay on the ground.

Giving evidence to Winchester Crown Court on Friday, Sonny Pollock, of Bolton Crescent, South Ham, admitted beginning an argument with Ben Dawe by asking if he was on drugs - which led to a fight.

However, Pollock denied hitting Mr Dawe in the head with a fence post, and told the court: "You would have to be sick in the head to hit someone around the head with a piece of wood."

Earlier, Mr Dawe, from Basingstoke, who was 19 at the time of the attack on April 6 last year, told the court he had been walking down an alley, between King's Road and Princes Crescent in South Ham, with his girlfriend at around 1am.

He described how one member of a 20-strong group offered him drugs, to which he said no, but he was then pushed over by a large black individual, and hit, punched and kicked by a group of people.

Prosecutor Peter Asteris told the court that Mr Dawe suffered a seven-centimetre gash to his head and a fractured jaw, and that a CT scan on his head later revealed a blood clot.

Pollock, 17, and Joshua Mathurin 18, of Chaucer Close, Popley, both deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Mr Dawe.

Pollock told the court that, having begun an argument with the victim: "I remember hitting him in the face, and going to hit him again.

"All of a sudden there was all these people around and Josh put him to the floor. There were 10 or 15 people there all of a sudden."

In answer to further questions from his defence barrister Charles Cochand, he said: "I kicked him, and Mr Dawe grabbed my leg to try and stop me. I kicked him on the body and kicked him again."

Pollock later told the court that several other people had joined him in kicking the victim as he lay on the ground, but that he did not know who they were.

Two witnesses have identified Pollock as one of the youths who allegedly hit Mr Dawe with a fence post, but he denied that blood found by the police on his jacket could have got there through him wielding a piece of wood.

Pollock has pleaded guilty to affray on the night in question. Mathurin denies the charge.

The trial continues.