AN evening of birthday celebrations in Fordingbridge ended in a young man spending three weeks in intensive care, a court heard this week.

Chris Hirst was left with severe brain injuries after being punched in the head while celebrating his 24th birthday with his girlfriend and friends at Butlers Bar and Grill in Shaftesbury Street in June.

A 17-year-old youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies causing grievous bodily harm in the incident in June this year.

Southampton Youth Court heard that on the night in question Mr Hirst and his group of friends had noticed a woman in the bar staring at them and felt uncomfortable so had gone to sit in the beer garden.

When it began to rain they went back into the bar and the woman approached Mr Hirst and accused him of beating up the 17-year-old in a previous incident.

Giving evidence Mr Hirst said: "She then kept going on at me about it and asked me to come outside with her so I went along and followed her outside as I was not wanting to cause a scene in the pub."

Mr Hirst said the woman shouted at him and then attacked him, punching him twice and headbutting him, but that he just wanted to carry on with his birthday celebrations and tried to soothe the situation.

The court heard that Mr Hirst then went back into the bar to join his friends but the woman later asked him to come outside again and the 17-year-old then came up to him and punched him in the head, knocking him to the ground.

One of Mr Hirst's friends, James Pitman, told the court: "He was just gurgling, wasn't moving at all. I thought then it was quite serious.

He wasn't responding to anything I said, just gurgling."

Mr Hirst suffered a fractured skull and a blood clot in his head and was in intensive care for three weeks while doctors tried to reduce the swelling to his brain.

The young man told the court he has lost his sense of smell and following the attack had suffered mental anxiety, lost money through not being able to work and had to give up driving for a year in case of suffering epileptic fits.

Corrine Iten, for the defence, put to Mr Pitman that Mr Hirst had pushed the defendant immediately before the attack but Mr Pitman said: "I would say that is rubbish. The whole evening Chris was trying to calm things down."

The case continues.