A NIGHTCLUB bouncer who thrust a broken bottle into a teacher's eye, leaving him partially blinded, was yesterday jailed for six years.

The surgeon who removed trainee teacher Paul Gibson's right eye said it was the worst injury he had seen.

Mr Gibson, 33, was with his wife Helen in the 42nd Street club, in Hartlepool, when he was attacked by off-duty bouncer Craig Sheen.

Martina Connelly, prosecuting, said Sheen, 27, punched a woman who was in an argument with his girlfriend, Karen Abbott.

When Mr Gibson asked why he did it, Sheen smashed a bottle onto a table and rammed it into his eye.

Mr Gibson, from Peterlee, east Durham, was left with a glass shard one and a quarter inches long in his eye.

He had planned to return home at midnight to resume his studies when Sheen, of Fenby Avenue, Darlington, struck in May last year.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Mr Gibson told police: "I was hit very hard and I can't help thinking you don't need to hit someone that hard if you are going to glass someone. I did not see my attacker."

But Stacey King, punched in the face by Sheen earlier, was able to identify him.

Mark Styles, defending, said Sheen was not a man man with previous convictions for matters of violence.

The judge, Recorder Katharine Buckingham, said the injury would affect Mr Gibson significantly for the rest of his life.

Sheen was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, common assault on Miss King and actual bodily harm assault on Neil Greaves, whom he headbutted during the incident.