A DRUNKEN thug has been locked up for savagely beating a man who tried to save a girl from unwanted advances.

Lee Welsh, 20, punched victim Neal Hedley to the ground then kicked him in the face as he tried to get up, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

He erupted in fury after nightclubber Stacy Clark fled a taxi in terror after he demanded she come back to his home in Hastings Street, Hendon, Sunderland, for a party.

Mr Hedley stepped in after Welsh chased her and grabbed her arm as she tried to run to a nightclub to get away from him.

Mr Hedley, who was passing the Beach nightclub, in Sunderland, asked Welsh to leave her alone, and was attacked.

The court was told he was taken to hospital with blood pouring from his wounds and has needed two jaw operations, including having a permanent metal plate fitted.

James Adkin, in mitigation, said it was a bad assault, but Welsh had suffered trauma after his mother died a few years earlier.

He said Welsh had pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm, and said: "He was extremely drunk. He drinks as a way of relieving the depression he feels."

He was sentenced to nine months in a young offenders' institute.