THE former security manager of Littlesea holiday park in Weymouth assaulted a colleague over missing keys.

Stuart Lee, 36, of Lanehouse Rocks Road in Weymouth, admitted attacking Phillip Gratton at the park in June after drinking.

Reading from a victim statement, Prosecutor Daniel Siong said Mr Gratton had gone into work and heard raised voices coming from inside a hut.

Magistrates heard Mr Gratton entered the hut and Lee asked him where some missing keys were.

The court heard Lee became aggressive when Mr Gratton said he didn't know.

Mr Siong said Lee called Mr Gratton a fat walrus and began swearing at him.

Mr Gratton could smell alcohol on Lee's breath and believed he was drunk.

Mr Siong said: "As he walked away from the defendant, the victim was pulling a cigarette out of his pocket.

"The defendant grabbed the victim by the right shoulder, pulled him around and punched the victim in the right eye with what, the victim thought, was a clenched fist."

Mr Gratton fell to the floor and banged his head on the concrete, which he described as being more painful than the punch.

Lee continued to throw 'windmill punches' at his victim and Mr Gratton struck back at Lee in self-defence, Mr Siong added.

Mr Siong told the court Lee had been convicted at Dorchester Crown Court in May 2001 for causing actual bodily harm.

Des Reynolds, mitigating, said his client had lost his job as security manager at the park following the assault and was now claiming job seekers' allowance.

Mr Reynolds said: "Some keys went missing and that was very serious because he was security manager and he was worried about that.

"He wanted to discuss that with his colleague, someone he worked with for some four years."

Magistrates heard the men had formerly been quite close and that Mr Gratton had been a personal friend of Lee.

Mr Reynolds said: "I think what we have today is a combination of factors."

Mr Reynolds said his client had drunk four pints before going to work, had worked 15 hours the day before and was in the middle of separating from his wife when the assault took place.

Magistrates ordered the probation service to write a report on Lee before he is sentenced at the court on August 10.