A MAN who travelled from London to celebrate his birthday back home was glassed in a pub, a court was told yesterday, when his attacker was jailed.

Lloyd Jackson, 25, was standing at the bar of the Green Dragon pub, in Darlington, when another drinker turned nasty, said Malcolm Towers, prosecuting.

The pub's CCTV footage showed Peter Brown, 28, follow him holding a glass.

Brown then struck him in the face while holding the glass, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Mr Jackson was initially thought to have suffered a serious injury, but he made an apparent full recovery, said Mr Towers.

Brown had previous convictions for violence, including affray involving a party of Fijian soldiers, and a recent offence of battery.

Analise Haugsted, mitigating, said that the glassing incident happened against a background of alcohol consumption.

She said Brown was self-employed with a young family and they were due to move into a new house, all of which would be threatened if he was jailed.

Judge George Moorhouse told him that the glassing caused what initially appeared to be horrific injuries.

The judge said: "You have appeared before the courts now a number of times for common assault, affray, and the time is coming when you are likely to be assessed as a serious risk to members of the public.

"People who smash glasses into other people are committing heinous crimes."

Brown, of Napier Street, Darlington, was jailed for two years after he was convicted of the March 3 unlawful wounding following a three-day trial at Teesside Crown Court.