YOUNG father Nathan Brinkworth is scarred for life after a sickening attack during which a bottle was smashed over his head then pushed into his face.

Shop fitter Mr Brinkworth, (pictured) 22, of Northville, Cwmbran, has been too traumatised to return to work since the unprovoked attack. He needed more than 70 sutures for his wounds which also included a deep cut to his back.

His attacker, Louis Maniatt, was jailed yesterday. Maniatt had been released from custody just weeks earlier for a similar incident when he nearly severed a man's ear with a broken bottle. But although Mr Brinkworth is relieved by the sentence, every time he looks in the mirror and sees the snaking scar on his left cheek, he says he relives the horror of what happened to him.

And the most devastating consequence, says Mr Brinkwroth, was the reaction of his four-year-old daughter Courtney Mortimer.

He said: "Courtney wouldn't come to me for several weeks because of my scar and it absolutely broke my heart."

The incident happened in North Street, Newport, last September as Mr Brinkworth and his friends waited for a taxi, Newport crown court was told.

A stranger, who was with Maniatt, racially abused one of his female friends and Mr Brinkworth asked for an apology.

Mr Brinkworth, of Northville, Cwmbran, said: "The next thing I knew a bottle was smashed over my head. I turned around and just had enough time to catch the man's eye before he thrust the neck of the bottle into my cheek."

Two of his friends, Scott Mayo and John O'Neil, were also injured when they came to help him.

Maniatt, 22, of Victoria Avenue, Newport, admitted wounding the three men. At Newport crown court Judge Philip Richards sentenced him to an extended sentence of nine years, six of which are custodial, for the attack on Mr Brinkworth.

He received two years concurrent sentence for the other offences. Judge Richards ordered that he should first serve 273 days remaining on licence from a 17-month sentence given for the earlier bottle attack.

After the case Mr Brinkworth said: "I'm overwhelmed by the verdict - I've been waiting a long time for this day."