The 17-year-old cannot be identified because of his age but will be sentenced next month after admitting to the March 25 attack.

The teen has been in custody since the assault and appeared via video link in Tamworth Children’s Court where he pleaded guilty to one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Rob Baillie tendered facts and a series of photographs of the 49-year-old victim’s injuries, as well as the blood-stained crime scene at the Robert St Shopping Village.

According to police facts, the teenager used ice on the night of March 24, and gained entry into a hotel in Tamworth where he “consumed alcohol and has consumed further amounts of an illicit drug in the form of ecstasy and acid”.

He left the hotel sometime between 1.30am and 2am and remembers sitting on a bench seat in Robert St where he saw the 49-year-old Crust and Cream Bakery employee leave work.

He asked the man for a cigarette, but the victim declined, facts state.

“The young person has become aggressive and rushed toward the victim,” facts state.

The man “feared for his safety” and ran the other way, but tripped and fell to the ground hitting his face.

According to the facts, the teenager picked the worker up off the ground, and punched him with a closed fist causing him to be knocked to the ground.

Police were called and teenager was chased and arrested for unrelated matters.

He was taken back to Tamworth Police Station, and as he“was being placed into the dock, he made admissions to police as having been responsible for assaulting the victim”.

The victim was taken to Tamworth hospital and then airlifted to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital where he was placed in an induced coma.

Facts state he has been cleared of any major head or brain damage, and is expected to make a full recovery.

Last month, the man’s family told The Leader he had been transferred to Tamworth hospital for rehabilitation of his injuries.

Magistrate Roger Prowse adjourned the case for sentence in May.

The teenager made no application for bail and it was formally refused.