A VIOLENT teenager has admitted breaking another young man’s jaw by pulling him down as they were shaking hands and kneeing him in the face ‘because he could.’
Oliver McKinney pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to inflicting grievous bodily harm on his victim during an incident in Stratford on July 7.
But the 19-year-old, of Jago Green, Snitterfield Lane, Snitterfield, pleaded not guilty to a more serious charge of inflicting the injury with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
At a previous hearing the court was told the incident had taken place in the street outside a flat in Stratford after McKinney and a friend had turned up in a car.
There was a brief exchange of words with the other young man, who was in the flat, and he then came down and there was a further conversation outside.
It is alleged that as McKinney and the young man went to ‘fist-thump’ each-other, McKinney instead punched him to the face.
A young woman came down from the flat and asked him why he had done it, to which McKinney responded: “Because I can.”
After a further conversation, he and the other young man went to shake hands – but as they did so McKinney pulled him down and kneed him in the face three times – leaving his victim with fractured jaw that required an operation.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano adjourned the case until a date to be fixed next month while medical evidence was obtained, and remanded McKinney in custody.
Oliver McKinney has been remanded in custody.
