A TEENAGER who denied hitting another youngster with a baseball bat said he had used a chair leg in self-defence, a court heard.

Louis Nicholas Lockyear, 18, of Catherine's Well, Milton Abbas, took to the stand at Dorchester Crown Court and said he had lied during his previous statements to Dorset Police and that he had waved a chair leg and injured a 16-year-old boy in self-defence.

Lockyear has denied the charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and a lesser charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm by using a baseball bat against the boy, who cannot be named because of his age.

Lockyear said: "In the first statement I lied to police, in the second I lied again because I was in enough trouble and didn't want to admit to it."

Prosecutor Paul Hester said the attack happened in Hambledon Gardens, Blandford, on Saturday, July 16, 2006, at 10.30pm when the boy became angry with a group of teenagers in two cars outside his party and kicked one of the cars.

Mr Hester said Lockyear was seen to run at the boy, striking him in the back of the legs with a three-foot-long baseball bat and when he buckled to the ground, Lockyear aimed a second blow at his face, striking his right arm when he raised it to defend himself.

Lockyear denied this and said after the boy kicked the car and his friend drove off, a group of young men approached him led by the 16-year-old - and in his panic he picked up an 18 to 20 inch-long chair leg lying nearby on some grass and swung it.

The trial continues today.