A TEENAGER who shattered his headteacher's cheekbone with a single punch has been spared jail.

Dexter Hungwa shouted "ginger bitch" and knocked Elisabeth Jones to the floor with "immense force" after she told him to close a door, Inner London Crown Court heard on June 26.

Judge Lindsay Burn gave Hungwa, now 16, a 12-month community punishment and rehabilitation order and said he had narrowly missed being locked up for the attack.

Hungwa, of Grove Street, Deptford, became verbally abusive after the teacher told him to shut the door of the canteen at Abbey Manor College, Falmouth Close, Brockley, on March 8.

Prosecutor Edward Munir told the court: "He was smoking and holding the door open and Ms Jones said he should either come in or out, it was cold."

He then hit the teacher in the left-hand side of the face, knocking her to the ground.

Her cheekbone was fractured in several places and she suffered nerve damage, bleeding and problems eating and sleeping.

Hungwa, who admitted one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm, has been ordered to keep a curfew between 8.30pm and 7am, be electronically tagged and receive specialist supervision.