A SINGLE punch left a young man in a coma with a fractured skull, following a row with a friend, a court was told.

Tony Malpass delivered the blow, which caused the other man to fall from a low wall on which he was standing, banging his head on the ground.

Durham Crown Court heard that the victim has no memory of the incident, but a passing off-duty police officer found him lying unconscious in a pool of blood.

He was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, and then transferred to Newcastle General Hospital due to the severity of his injuries.

Don MacFaul, prosecuting, said he fell into a coma for a time and spent 18 days in hospital, requiring 60 stitches.

He has since undergone speech therapy and a consultant believes he will be left with a 12in scar to his head.

Mr MacFaul said Malpass walked to the nearby Cricketers Arms, in Blackhill, Consett, blood-stained, saying: "I've just hit my best friend. I hope he's all right."

He returned to the scene and was arrested, but when interviewed he told police he could not offer an explanation.

Robin Patton, mitigating, described Malpass as a hard working man who deeply regrets his actions.

Malpass, 19, of Bracken Close, Stanley, County Durham, admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

Sentencing him to a year in a young offenders' institution, Judge Esmond Faulks told Malpass: "It could have ended with something which is fairly familiar to us in the courts, a single-punch manslaughter."