A carpenter who took a swing at a teenager with a golf club has been spared jail after telling the judge he had been driven mad by a gang of noisy youths.

John Hills lost his temper after confronting a group of youngsters who had been riding a noisy scooter around the streets near his house late at night, waking his stepson.

When the teenagers were rude and cocky to him, he picked up a golf club from the ground and hit a 15-year-old member of the group on the head with it.

The boy fell to the ground with blood gushing from the wound. He was taken to hospital where he needed nine stitches.

Hills, 53, who believed the police were ignoring his pleas for action to tackle the anti-social behaviour, admitted wounding the boy when he appeared at Lewes Crown Court.

Judge David Rennie ordered him to pay his victim £250 compensation for his injuries but spared him from jail after hearing he had been driven mad by the behaviour of the teenagers.

Hills was sentenced to carry out a 100-hour community punishment order and was also placed under a community rehabilitation order for two years.

The judge warned Hills if he breached the orders he would be sent to prison.

He said: "Noisy and disruptive behaviour can ruin the lives of residents and I accept you and others in the area had been driven mad for a few nights by the noise and disruptive behaviour of a group of up to ten young men.

But he added: "However frustrating, you must understand that calling the police and waiting for them to arrive is the only sensible and lawful action to take. Your behaviour was inappropriate and, despite the background, inexcusable. This young man did not deserve to be injured in the way he was."

Jonathan Edwards, prosecuting, said the boys were approached by three people including Hills, in Roderick Avenue, Peacehaven, at about 11.30pm on June 27, 2002.

He said: "The defendant became aggressive towards the group. He swore, pushed the golf club into the teenager's face, then struck him on the side of the head and the top of the head, causing him to fall to the ground."

Witnesses told the police the attacker was called Big J and was known to drink in the local pub. Hills was traced and arrested. He was released without charge and arrested again in June last year.

Nick Wells, defending, said Hills, who has 143 previous convictions dating back to the Sixties, was sorry for what had happened. Three months afterwards he had moved from the area and now lived in Pevensey Road, St Leonards.

He said the unemployed carpenter and his neighbours were infuriated by the behaviour of the teenagers, who for days had been riding around on a scooter with a specially adapted exhaust which made the machine even noisier.

A number of calls had been made to the police but no action was taken.

He said on the night of the assault, about ten youths, who had been drinking, were involved. When Hills confronted them, they were abusive and told him it was none of his business.

Mr Wells said: "They were cocky back and that annoyed the defendant so much he tapped the teenager with the golf club. Obviously that was wrong. But it was not a wild swing.

"It was stupid and he should not have done it. It was because these boys were being provocative and rude to him. Perhaps if the police had come round immediately this might not have happened."