A YOUNG soldier embedded a pickaxe into the head of a Lance Corporal after a bust-up during an army training exercise on Salisbury Plain, a court heard this week.

The axe struck Konrad Bisping (26) with such force that the point pierced his skull and travelled an inch-and-a-half into his brain.

L/Cpl Bisping slumped to the ground with the metal tool embedded in his head.

He survived but suffered serious brain damage.

On Tuesday an 18-year-old private - who cannot be named for legal reasons - went on trial for attempted murder at Bristol Crown Court.

The pair, of the First Battalion Queens Lancashire Regiment based in Catterick, North Yorks, clashed during a three-day training exercise in January.

L/Cpl Bisping was leading a platoon on an exercise in preparation for possible war with Iraq.

The private, then aged 17, hurt his ankle and began lagging behind.

L/Cpl Bisping dropped back to remonstrate with him, during which the private claims he was punched in the face.

Private Daniel Stubbs was resting with the accused near the end of the exercise.

He told the court the private had blood coming from the side of his mouth and had told him: "Corporal Bisping hit me."

Pte Stubbs added: "He was quite angry, quite mad. He was just standing there, hacking the pickaxe into the floor quite aggressively.

He said, 'He is picking on the wrong guy - but he won't get away with this'."

He said the accused soldier looked at the pickaxe and said: 'You know where this is going? It's going in his head.'

Shortly afterwards the private crept up behind L/Cpl Bisping and swung the axe into his head.

Eye-witness Pte Robert Gore said: "He was fuming. He was pacing up and down. He was bright red and snarling. He walked up to him (Bisping), swung the pickaxe and struck it in his head.

Father-of-two Bisping, from Clitheroe, Lancs., underwent brain surgery at Southampton Hospital and was left with "devastating injuries" including substantially reduced eye-sight, the court heard. He also has a 'false sixth sense' of someone always at his shoulder.

The accused soldier, now 18, pleads not guilty to attempted murder but admits one count of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Prosecutor Robert Davies told the jury: "The fact that Mr Bisping was not actually killed is down to luck and to the skill of the neurosurgeons at hospital in Southampton."

The prosecution say he intended to kill the man he hit with the axe.

The case continues.