Karate kid beats mugger

A 12-year-old told how he turned the tables on a would-be mugger when he unleashed his martial arts skills on the yob.

Jake Oliver was walking back to his home in Hartcliffe, Bristol, on Saturday morning when he was confronted by the balaclava-clad thug. The stocky, 5ft 10ins, assailant had leapt out from behind a bush and demanded Jake's phone.

But the unruffled youngster - who won a gold medal at a national karate championships last year - refused and delivered a karate chop, which broke the man's nose.

The bleeding yob fled empty-handed and drove off after being given a lesson he will never forget by the junior crime fighter.

Jake, who has practised freestyle karate for four years, today described how he had used his martial arts to defend himself against the mugger.

"He said 'Give me your phone or you'll get hurt.' But I'd worked really hard doing lots of odd jobs to pay for the phone and I hated having to give it away," he told the Bristol Evening Post.

"Then he swung at me so I had no choice but to defend myself, or I knew I'd get a beating and lose my phone in the process. So I side-stepped his punch and delivered a right-hander in the face. It broke his nose and there was blood everywhere."

Jake then ran back to tell his mother, Sue, 39, and lorry-driver father Oly, 36, what had happened.

The youngster, who trains five days a week at his local club, won the 9-11 age category of the Cobra Martial Arts Association World Kickboxing and Karate Association Championship (WKA) in Manchester last year.