A MAN broke the jaw of a “cocky and self-satisfied” teenager who had burgled his parents’ house, a court heard.

Nathan Hewett repeatedly punched Robbie Ingham after the 18-year-old “brazenly” admitted to stealing a PlayStation.

A judge at Oxford Crown Court yesterday said Hewett was provoked and “reacted in the way many young men would have done”.

The 21-year-old defendant, who works as a groundskeeper at Blenheim Palace, admitted causing actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

Recorder Julian Knowles gave him a six-week curfew and ordered him to pay £200 costs.

Hewett currently earns £920 a month at Blenheim, but is expected to join the army in September.

Recorder Knowles said: “Many young men would have reacted the same way to a cocky and self-satisfied burglar who brazenly admitted to stealing from your parents.”

Recorder Knowles said Hewett’s imminent entry to the army would give him “ample opportunity to serve (his) community and country” and said such service would “make Mr Ingham’s behaviour look trivial in comparison”.

However, he warned Hewett: “Don’t lose your temper however much you are provoked. We do not encourage vigilantism in this country.”

The judge had heard the defendant came across Mr Ingham in Stonesfield, west Oxfordshire, while walking his dog on June 19 last year.

Prosecutor Roger Coventry said Hewett asked the teenager, who was 17 at the time, if he had burgled his parents’ house, and said the teen admitted it, adding: “Well, you should not have left the door unlocked.”

Mr Ingham, who formally admitted the burglary and received a police caution, was punched repeatedly to the head and suffered a broken jaw.

David Rhodes, defending, said: “In essence this burglar brazenly admitted to (Hewett’s) face ‘yes, I burgled your house, what are you going to do about it?’.”

He said Hewett, from Elms Road, Cassington, “is a young man with a promising career who passionately wants to join the army”.

Recorder Knowles heard the incident arose after a dispute between Mr Ingham and Hewett’s brother which culminated in Mr Ingham going round to the Hewetts’ house.

When he found no-one was in, he stole a PlayStation games console, the court heard.

Mr Rhodes said of the assault: “He (Hewett) saw red, lost his temper and gave him what for.”