THE 63-year-old victim of a "cowardly" assault yesterday said locking his attacker up for a year was not enough.

After the court hearing, retired Newport engineer Roy McCarthy said: "The sentence is not long enough as he'll be out in six months. He needs to be taught a lesson."

Mr McCarthy was followed as he walked home from a pub in Maindee before being set upon and injured by Christopher Hale, (pictured) then 19 years old.

Mr McCarthy lost consciousness as a result. He suffered a broken rib and broken wrist as well as face and head injuries.

"This was an unprovoked attack on an elderly man at night in a lonely spot," Mr Recorder Jonathan Furness told Hale before sentencing him at Newport crown court to a year in a young offenders' institution.

Hale was carrying a brick which he used to jab his victim in the ribs. Mr Furness said he was unable to conclude that the brick was also used to hit Mr McCarthy in the face, but if he had done the sentence of 12 months would have been much longer.

The Recorder said Mr McCarthy could have become unconscious after being struck in the face and then banging his head hard on the ground. He added: "His injuries were pretty awful to look at."

When he came to, Mr McCarthy, of Old Barn Estate, St Julians, identified Hale as his attacker.

Mr Furness described the attack as "cowardly", entirely motiveless and so serious that only a custodial sentence was justified.

He also heard that Hale was in breach of a community rehabilitation order following assaults on three police officers in 2002.

He gave him a further one month sentence on each of those charges to be served concurrently.

Hale, of Buttermere Way, Newport, pleaded not guilty to the attack but was found guilty of causing actual bodily harm by a jury earlier this month.

Stephen Jeary, defending, said Hale continued to deny that he had carried out the assault.

The man he regarded as his father had also written a letter to the court.

Hale had spent two years working in the same job in Devon. It was when he returned to this part of the world that he committed offences, said Mr Jeary.