Man jailed for glassing attack in town pub

A former Young Builder of the Year has been jailed for four years for a glassing in a Suffolk pub which left a man with permanent scarring.

Paul Courtney, who won the title in 2008, was at the Falcon pub in Lowestoft when he hit Owen Carroll on the side of the face causing a 5cm cut on his right cheek and a 3cm cut under his right eye, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Courtney, 28, of Marham Road, Lowestoft, admitted wounding Mr Carroll with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm in May last year and was jailed for four years.

Godfried Duah, prosecuting, said that, before the glassing incident Mr Carroll had chatted to Courtney while buying drinks at the bar.

Later in the evening, Mr Carroll had been on the dance floor when he felt a blow and realised that a glass had been smashed in his face. “There was a blood flowing from the injury,” said Mr Duah.

He said that after the glassing incident Courtney had thrown a bar stool towards Mr Carroll but it missed him and hit someone else. After his arrest, Courtney claimed Mr Carroll had tried to cut his finger off. “That doesn’t make any sense at all,” Mr Duah said.

He said that, two months before the attack on Mr Carroll, Courtney had been made the subject of a one-year community order for an offence of threatening behaviour which had also involved a glass.

Steven Dyble, for Courtney, said his client had been named Young Builder of the Year in 2008 and, as a result of the glassing incident, he had lost his job.

He said Courtney had been very proud of the title, and the loss of his job as a result of his own stupidity had been a crushing blow.

He accepted that Mr Carroll had been left scarred for life by the attack and said Courtney felt genuine remorse for what he had done.