A DRUNKEN scaffolder who was part of a gang attack on a man in the toilets of a club was last night starting a nine-month prison sentence.

Peter Harper was the only one of the three assailants charged with the assault in Flares, in Middlesbrough town centre, in December 2013.

Forensic tests on his clothes showed the 27-year-old punched the victim when he was already bleeding, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

The injured offshore worker suffered serious damage to both of his upper front teeth and needed surgery, said prosecutor Rachel Masters.

Miss Masters said the teeth - which are likely to fall out - were splinted with wire, his gum was stitched and bone in his jaw fractured.

Judge John Walford described the attack as "thuggish mindless violence" and said Harper was so "hopelessly drunk" that he cannot remember it.

Rachel Dyson, mitigating, said Harper had turned around his life after being freed from a two-and-a-half-year sentence eight years ago.

He had been jailed then for breaking into a house, assaulting his victim and tying them up with speaker wire, the court was told.

Miss Dyson said he had successfully battled drug problems, and found work, but continued to be plagued by troubles with alcohol.

"Knowing that this case was coming up, he handed in his notice so there was not the position where he let his employer down," she revealed.

"He had attended court today in his tracksuit - an indication, he says, he is expecting a custodial sentence. He feels he deserves it."

Harper, of Mansfield Avenue, Middlesbrough, admitted a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier court hearing.

Judge Walford told him: "It would be a dereliction of my duty and send out quite the wrong signal if I was not to impose an immediate sentence."