The cost of excessive drinking was graphically illustrated in a case heard at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Richard Singh, 26, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for a drunken Boxing Day attack in which he lashed out with a Sambuca bottle, embedding shards of broken glass in a man’s face, damaging the sight in his left eye.

Singh, 26, of Queen’s Road, Ingrow, Keighley, pleaded guilty to unlawfully wounding Neil Savage, a 52-year-old diabetic.

Prosecutor Richard Smith said Singh visited Mr Savage’s home in Bracken Bank Grove, Keighley, at 8.30am on December 26 last year.

He had been drinking and was clutching the Sambuca bottle. Singh said he was a friend of Mr Savage’s son and was invited into the house, where Mr Savage lived with his mother, who is in her 70s.

Singh became agitated, swinging the bottle and threatening to hit Mr Savage with it. As Mr Savage wrote down his son’s contact details, he felt a blow and began bleeding, the court heard.

He was treated iin Airedale General Hospital, but transfered to Bradford Royal Infirmary as his left eye was bleeding. Mr Smith said Mr Savage, who had cataracts in his right eye, suffered impaired vision in his left eye from the attack. He needed operations and was suffering from stress.

Singh, who was arrested three days’ later, had convictions for asault, battery and affray.

His solicitor advocate, Julian White, said his client had serious mental health problems, including paranoia, brought on, in some part, by alcohol and substance abuse.

He had not known what he was doing when at Mr Savage’s home. Now drug and alcohol free, Singh was a trained plasterer and father of two.

Judge Peter Benson jailed Singh for three years for unlawful wounding and an extra six months for breach of a previous court order.