A teenager who fell in love with his friend's girlfriend hit him with a cricket bat in a 'savage and brutal' attack to get back at her, a court heard.

Jack O'Sullivan, 19, burst into Kieron Shreeve's house in Kirkley Gardens, Lowestoft, while he was dozing on a sofa and hit him two or three times on the head with a cricket bat, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

He had then delivered further blows with the bat to Mr Shreeve's knuckles, wrist, forearm, elbow, knee and shin before hitting him again on the head, said Michael Crimp, prosecuting.

During the incident Mr Shreeve was bleeding from a wound to his head and was in extreme pain from the blows to his arm.

The incident was witnessed by a nine-year-old girl, who ran out of the room and hid in a bathroom, while two younger children were asleep upstairs.

O'Sullivan, of Kirkley Gardens, Lowestoft admitted aggravated burglary on March 10 and was sentenced to five years and four months in a young offenders' institution. He was also given a 16 week sentence to run consecutively for breaching a suspended sentence.

Sentencing O'Sullivan, Judge David Goodin described the attack as 'savage and brutal'. 'It was not an act of punishment to your victim but to the person you thought had slighted you,' said the judge.

Mr Crimp said that during the incident O'Sullivan had been pacing up and down and rambling and had blamed what he was doing on Mr Shreeve's partner Marie Turrell.

The court heard that as a result of the attack Mr Shreeve suffered a four inch cut to his head and severe bruising to his arm.

After the incident O'Sullivan told police that he had fallen in love with Mr Shreeve's partner and said: 'The only way I could hurt her was to hurt him.'

He also sent Ms Turrell a text message saying, 'It doesn't matter how many years I get, it was worth it.'

Stephen Rose, for O'Sullivan, said the motive for the attack was something that had occurred between Mr Shreeve's partner and O'Sullivan.

'He felt jilted and used and such was his state of mind he thought the only way to express his feelings was to draw her partner into the situation by using violence,' said Mr Rose.