A MAN has been jailed indefinitely for a revenge bottle attack left his victim needed 26 stitches to a facial wound.

Richard Christopher Barker, 27, had brooded over an earlier incident outside a nightclub in which he came to blows with Shane Johnson, a court heard.

Barker went to Mr Johnson’s home in Tennyson Road, Colne, and attacked him with a bottle on September 5 last year.

Mr Johnson was left with facial injuries that needed twenty six stitches. As well as being left with scarring, he also had a fracture.

Preston Crown Court heard that at one time, when Mr Johnson sneezed, it felt like his eyes were coming out of their sockets, following the injuries.

It is likely that he will have plastic surgery in the future.

Barker, who has previous convictions for violence, had written a letter to the judge for the sentencing hearing.

Barker, of Moorview Road, Skipton, pleaded guilty to a charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

He was told he would serve a minimum of 839 days before he could be considered for possible parole.

Judge Graham Knowles QC told the defendant: "It was a pre meditated revenge attack with brooding and waiting and a deliberate attempt to draw the victim out".

It was unclear who had been the first to strike a blow outside the nightclub. But if it was Mr Johnson, he had only done so, pre-empting violence from the defendant, the judge said.

"What he did was trivial in comparison with to the defendant's offence", added the judge.

The judge accepted that the bottle of alcohol had not been bought as a weapon. But after it became empty, the defendant had kept it, contemplating its use as a weapon.

The judge found there was a significant risk of serious harm to members of the public from the defendant in future.

He passed a sentence of indeterminate prison for public protection.

Defence barrister Michael Maher said his client accepted what he did was ‘very wrong’.

He said: “He has set about trying to turn his life around while he has been in custody.

"He is looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel.”