An apprentice carpenter who launched an unprovoked attack on a teenager outside an Oxford pub has been jailed for four months.

David Chandler, 18, had previously pleaded guilty to assaulting Daniel Quartermain, who was also 18 at the time of the attack, outside the Jack Russell pub in Marston, on September 29 last year.

John Small, prosecuting, said Mr Quartermain, who had not been drinking alcohol, was waiting outside the pub at about 11.30pm to get a taxi into town with a friend when he was aware of a young man approaching him.

"Mr Quartermain started to feel uneasy about what might be going to happen.

"The accused then went straight up to him and head-butted him in the face," said Mr Small.

"His head was knocked back against the wall of the pub and he fell to the floor. He scrambled up to his feet and remembers being hit several more times by the man. He felt pain in his right cheek and became aware he had been bitten."

Mr Small said Chandler admitted his involvement but claimed Mr Quartermain was bothering his girlfriend, and had landed the first punch.

Eleanor Duhs, in mitigation, said: "Mr Chandler is very remorseful and depressed at his lack of control. He is a very damaged young man. In his childhood he has had experiences and seen things that children should never do."

Judge Recorder Guy Hungerford said: "It was a savage and unprovoked attack. This was a disgraceful episode."

He sentenced Chandler of Stainfield Road, Northway, Headington, to four months in a young offenders' institution, and ordered him to pay £50 compensation.