A “DRUNKEN lunatic” beat up two women, fracturing one’s eye socket and knocking the other senseless, after he had been on a 17 hour drinking binge.

Scott Mason, 29, attacked Zoe Sharples and Charlie Rennick in their home after they invited him round to continue his birthday celebrations, Bradford Crown Court heard.

When they intervened in an argument between Mason and another male guest, he punched Miss Sharples in the face, prosecutor Paul Nicholson said.

Miss Rennick, who grabbed Mason in a bear hug to protect her friend, was punched, kicked, bitten and hit with a television set and stand.

She told how she closed her eyes in terror before losing consciousness.

Miss Sharples, a hairdresser, sustained a fractured left eye socket, a blood clot in her eye and two black eyes. She had a CT scan and was left with nerve damage to her face and impaired vision. She needed surgery to insert a metal plate into her face.

Miss Sharples said in her victim personal statement that she had to move home because she no longer felt safe. Her damaged vision meant she could not work at the busiest time of year. She became reclusive and suffered panic attacks.

“I found myself in a very dark place and unable to sleep at night,” she said.

Mason pleaded guilty to causing Miss Sharples grievous bodily harm and assaulting Miss Rennick causing her actual bodily harm on December 2 last year.

The court heard that Mason, of Bankfield Drive, Keighley, had been on a 17 hour drinking session to celebrate his birthday. He did not usually drink and could not remember attacking the women but immediately accepted that he had.

His barrister, Jayne Beckett, said: “This really is out of character. There can be no doubt at all about that.”

Mason was ordinarily a good worker, a good friend and a good member of society.

He had lost his job as a customer services manager with Ladbrokes and his home since committing the offences.

“He has expressed nothing but remorse about what he did,” Mrs Beckett said.

The judge, Recorder Anthony Hawks, said: “If anybody needs to know why going on a 17 hour drinking binge is not a good idea, they just want to come and listen to what has gone on in this courtroom for the last 20 minutes.”

He told Mason: “You were behaving like a drunken lunatic, totally out of control.”

Miss Sharples had sustained a broken eye socket that needed a surgical plate and Miss Rennick had been left bruised and bitten on her arm.

“Biting a woman, biting anybody, is an utterly despicable piece of behaviour,” Recorder Hawks said.

But Mason, who now worked in a bar, was genuinely shocked and remorseful.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 250 hours of unpaid work and an electronically monitored four-month curfew.

Mason must also pay Miss Sharples £1,000 compensation and Miss Rennick £500.

“I hope you think that night out was worth it,” the Recorder told Mason.