Thug thrust bottle in bouncer’s face.

A court security officer was left with a strip of flesh hanging off his face after being attacked with a bottle when he was recruited as a pub bouncer on New Year’s Eve.

Drinker Christopher Brown had already been thrown out of a pub in Honiton but sneaked back in and attacked the doorman when he told him to leave for a second time.

Victim Craig Heard, who normally works as a security man at Plymouth Crown Court, spent two days in hospital and needed microsurgery to correct nerve damage to his mouth.

Drainage worker Brown, of Broadfields, Exeter, admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was jailed for four years by Judge John Neligan at Exeter Crown Court.

The case had originally been listed to be heard by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, but he stepped down because he knew the victim from Plymouth Crown Court.

The judge told him: “You struck the victim in the face with either a glass or a bottle because you were unable to control your temper after an altercation with a former girlfriend.

“The aggravating feature is that this was fuelled by the quantity of alcohol you drank that night. Mr Heard suffered a deep ragged laceration over his left lower jaw.

“I take into account your expressions of remorse that are plain from the letter you have written to the victim.”

Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said Mr Heard was drafted in to help as a doorman at the Orange Tree pub in Honiton, where he helped eject Brown around midnight after he was seen arguing with an ex girlfriend.

He saw him back in the bar 45 minutes later and was attacked by Brown who had no memory of what he had done but is thought to have used a broken bottle.

Mr Barnes said: “Despite his injuries, Mr Heard succeeded in taking Brown outside but then collapsed because he was bleeding very profusely. He suffered a deep triangular cut to the side of his neck with a flap of skin hanging from it.

“He made a victim impact statement saying he suffered loss of earnings and has been left with a scar on his cheek and loss of movement on the side of his lip.”

Miss Anna Midgley, defending, said Brown is so sorry about what he did that he has written a personal letter to the victim to apologise and believes he deserves to go to jail.

She said he has no memory of what he did but accepts that he must have intended to cause some injury.

She said he now works as a drainage engineer and spends as much time as he can with his three-year-old son.