A YOUTH who butted a motorist causing a hairline fracture to the nose has been ordered to spend 16 hours at an attendance centre.

Angela Smith, prosecuting, told York Youth Court that the victim had stopped at traffic lights in Hull Road, York, on April 6, when a young man kicked the rear of his car.

When the motorist asked him why, the youth, then 17, butted him and punched him, causing the hairline fracture and other injuries.

The youth, now 18, and living on the east side of York, pleaded guilty to assaulting the motorist and assaulting a boy his own age in a separate incident on February 28 last year. He also admitted breaching two six-month-long referral orders imposed for the assaults. He cannot be identified for legal reasons.

In the earlier attack, the victim was walking along Crossway, York, when the attacker and friends taunted him about alleged nuisance calls, said Mrs Smith. The attacker hit him and left him on the ground. He told police the other boy had swung at him first.

When youth justices asked him to speak, the youth said he had nothing to say.

The justices gave him 16 hours at an attendance centre and warned him that if he did not obey the order, they could lock him up. He has already been ordered to pay £100 compensation to the motorist.

Referral orders are given to young first-time offenders instead of formal punishments to try to keep them out of the criminal justice system.

Updated: 10:20 Wednesday, March 19, 2003