A THUG who attacked a woman in her home with a weapon has been warned he is likely to be jailed.

Alan Loughlin, 20, of Titania Close, Colchester, changed his plea on the opening day of his trial for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

With the judge waiting and the jury due to be called, Emma Nash, prosecuting, asked the charge to be put to Loughlin again, and this time he admitted it.

Co-defendant Emma Power, 18, of Titania Close, Colchester, was found not guilty after the prosecution offered no evidence against her.

The full details of what Loughlin did on November 27 at the house in the town will be heard when he is sentenced next month.

Recorder Simon Blackford ordered a pre sentence report and issued a stark warning to Loughlin before adjourning the case.

He said: “This appears to pass the custody threshold and it is important the court obtains the appropriate information about you.”

He was bailed, but Recorder Blackford said he should not take the release as an indication of the likely sentence when he returns to court next month.

Miss Nash described Loughlin as “lightly convicted” at a brief hearing at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday.

He appeared in court in May last year for intimidating a witness in connection with the Jay Whiston murder trial. Jay, 17, was stabbed to death by teenager Edward Redman outside a house party in Marlowe Way, Colchester, in September 2012 .

Loughlin, a friend of Redman’s, was accused of trying to disrupt the murder trial.

In May 2013, he approached a girl, 16, at Colchester Institute, who was due to be a witness for the prosecution, and called her a snitch.

In May, last year he admitted a charge of putting her in fear of violence and harassment and was jailed for four months.

Redman, 18, of Halstead Road, Colchester, was convicted of Jay’s murder and was jailed for 17 years.