A TEENAGE thug who left a man with devastating head injuries has been detained under the Mental Health Act.

Michael Berrisford had previously been unfit to stand trial but on Monday admitted the attack on tragic Roger Millgate.

Maidstone Crown Court had heard how Mr Millgate, a 51-year-old loner, of St Albans Close, Gillingham, was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he encountered the youth and two friends.

Berrisford, Andrew Coffield and Robert Deadman were out stealing cars on May 20 last year. After crashing a Ford Escort, they saw Mr Millgate walking alone in Gillingham.

Alan Kent, prosecuting, told how the victim was attacked and beaten so badly that he is unlikely to ever make a full recovery.

Coffield, 20, instigated the assault, but Berrisford, 18, caused the most serious injuries.

They and Deadman, 22, had left the Fleur De Lys public house in Gillingham Road, Gillingham, and went looking for cars to take. After stealing the Escort, Coffield crashed it into a wall.

They then turned their attention to Mr Millgate at the junction of Hamilton Road and Corporation Road.

"He was badly assaulted in the street at midnight, leaving him with terrible head injuries, from which he is unlikely ever to fully recover," said the prosecutor.

"It was a random assault on a member of the public who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He was found unconscious on the pavement by Richard Guttridge, who was on his way home to Corporation Road with his girlfriend.

At first he thought he was drunk and snoring loudly, but then saw blood on his face. He called the police.

"Mr Millgate was taken to hospital, where he has remained," said Mr Kent. "He is in rehabilitation. He can only sit up for a few minutes at a time before being laid back down again."

He suffered injuries to the front and back of his head and was in a coma for five weeks.

While Berrisford was in custody for other matters he asked questions about an investigation into the "murder" of a man in Hamilton Road. He was then questioned about the attack.

Berrisford, of Napier Road, Gillingham, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and aggravated vehicle-taking.

Michael Haynes, defending, said the teenager’s conscience led him to own up and name the two others. "Had it not been for him it might be that nobody would have been prosecuted for this," he said.

Miss Recorder Vivecia Cameron told Berrisford: "You sensibly and realistically pleaded guilty today. This was a vicious and unprovoked attack on a mild-mannered man who happened to be on the street at night."

Recorder Cameron said Mr Millgate had effectively been left for dead.

Berrisford, she said, had a long history of mental problems resulting from a road accident when he was aged six.

"The way in which the court deals with you now has a sad inevitability about it," she said.

The hospital order was made without limit of time. He was detained at St Andrew’s Hospital in Northampton where he had been receiving treatment.

Coffield, of High Street, Chatham, was sentenced to two-and-half years youth custody for inflicting grievous bodily harm and aggravated vehicle-taking.

Deadman, of Hazeldene Drive, Gillingham, was jailed for nine months for aggravated vehicle-taking. Both admitted the charges.

Deadman had been recalled to continue serving a six-year sentence for a robbery in 2001, involving at meat cleaver attack on a petrol station cashier in Dartford.