A VICIOUS racial attack on a woman in a pub has left her needing a metal plate in her face.

Victoria Scott, 56, from Chester-le-Street, was in the town's Red Lion pub on December 23 when she was brutally assaulted.

She was left with injuries so severe she had to undergo two operations, one to insert a metal place to hold together her shattered cheek bone and the other to save the sight in her right eye.

Miss Scott said the attack happened as she waited for a friend in the pub between 5.30pm and 6pm, when a man in his twenties tried to talk to her.

She said: "He wanted to speak to me, to have a conversation, but I wasn't interested, so I told him to clear off. He started using horrible names. They were so bad I wouldn't even write them down."

At that point, an acquaintance in the pub told her not to take any notice of him and told Miss Scott she could sit with him. But she told the man she would be all right and went to sit down.

A few seconds later she was attacked.

"He just hit me. It was just such a surprise," she said.

"I fell down and I think he started kicking my head."

Miss Scott says she is still in danger of losing the sight in her right eye and says she has been told by doctors she could suffer a brain haemorrhage.

Miss Scott, who is African, is urging witnesses to call the police, who have confirmed they are still investigating the incident.

She said: "I have lived here since 1982, I've worked in a local hospital and often done voluntary work, so everyone knows me here.

"I am just pleading for anybody who has seen this man attacking me or running away to contact the police.

"I'm 56, I've never been through any trauma like this before. I've suffered before with racism, but not this way. I have to spend the rest of my life with this metal plate."

Anyone with any information regarding the attack should contact Chester-le-Street police station on (0191) 388 4311.