A DAD-OF-TWO left a man with part of his lip missing after a midnight attack in a pub beer garden.

Burnley Crown Court heard Daniel Spedding hit Warren Nicholson hard in the face repeatedly in the melee, ripping open his lip and leaving him scarred.

Spedding, who had been wearing a chunky ring, afterwards took a swing at the victim with a bottle.

Mr Nicholson, who had been drinking, was said to have made insulting remarks about the defendant’s mother, but could not recall what he had said to him.

The jobless defendant, 25, of Beresford Court, Burnley, who has a record for disorder and assault, earlier admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

He was given nine months in jail, suspended for a year, with supervision, 100 hours unpaid work and the anger management programme.

Sentencing him, Recorder Andrew Long said the defendant had escaped being locked up by the ‘narrowest of margins’.

He said: “I am giving you this opportunity. I urge you to take it.”

The court was told the fracas, captured on CCTV, was at the Cross Keys pub, last May 14.

James Heyworth, for Spedding, had handed in two character references to the judge.

He said the defendant had seen red as a result of what Mr Nicholson said to him, but that was an explanation not mitigation.