A PRISONER whose single punch caused the death of another inmate has admitted manslaughter.

Matthew Stobie hit Shane Watt in a row over a phone card and 36-year-old Watt initially walked away without any apparent serious injury.

However, he suffered a brain injury and later underwent surgery, but did not recover.

He died in hospital on February 20.

Stobie, 26, from Darlington, appeared before Teesside Crown Court and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The case against the convicted burglar was adjourned for reports and he is due to be sentenced next month.

Watt was assaulted by Stobie, who was initially charged with causing grievous bodily harm, last July inside Holme House Prison, Stockton.

At the time, Stobie, formerly of Lewis Road, Darlington, was serving a two-year fourmonth sentence for burglary.

He was jailed in April last year after joining two other men during a raid at a house in Montrose Street, Darlington.

One of the gang was masked and the householder was hit by a rolling pin after the front door was kicked in.

The victim called police, and Stobie and his accomplices were arrested as they left in a van, with a television in the back.

The court heard last year that the raid, the previous December, had left the man so terrified that he moved home.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, told the court the victim had been physically scarred for life.

The ringleader – involved in another similar attack – was jailed for five years, and the third offender received two years.

Stobie will be dealt with on July 29 after a background report on him is compiled by the Probation Service.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, remanded him back in to custody until his next appearance.

Watt, who previously lived in Grangetown, Middlesbrough, had convictions for taking cars. He appeared before Teesside Crown Court last February after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicle taking, two counts of driving without insurance, one of failing to provide a breath sample and one of burgling his uncle’s home in Redcar.

The court heard how Watt, who had a drink problem, took his girlfriend’s Citroen Saxo from outside her home and reversed it into a lamppost.

Shortly after, he went to his uncle’s home and took the keys to his car, smashing into the gateposts as he drove off, causing £2,500 damage to the car.