A FORMER police officer told last night how he is haunted by nightmares after being scarred for life when his crazed girlfriend bit a chunk out of his face.

Michael Pattinson says he wakes to see visions of Tracey Pattison’s face covered with his blood following the attack at his home in Darlington last year.

The 41-year-old – who had plastic surgery to repair a gaping hole in his chin – also has vivid nightmares about being savaged by packs of wild animals.

Mother-of-two Pattison, 38, ripped the chunk of flesh – the size of a plum – from his face as they struggled on the floor during a drunken late-night row.

She admitted a charge of unlawful wounding and walked free from Teesside Crown Court yesterday when she was given a suspended prison sentence.

Judge Les Spittle told her most people would have expected her to be locked up, but he described that view as “over-simplistic” in Pattison’s case.

The court heard how the couple met through the internet and their on-off relationship had been blighted by arguments sparked by family heartaches.

Shaun Dodds, prosecuting, said a baby being stillborn in 2010 and a relative of Mr Pattinson being diagnosed with cancer had caused tension.

The couple arranged to meet on August 16 last year after a three-week break, and Pattison travelled to her partner’s home in Sutcliffe Court to see him.

Mr Pattinson says he asked her to leave following an argument, but she started to punch him and he grabbed her by the top of the arms to restrain her.

They struggled and fell to the floor, and as Mr Pattison lay there, he felt what he thought was a head-butt to the chin – until he saw the blood.

In an impact statement, Mr Pattinson said: “I thought I knew her. I didn’t see it coming.

I feel as though there is a horrible dark cloud over my life.

“I have had wild nightmares of being savaged by animals. I have flashing images of Tracey with my blood around her mouth. It’s the stuff of horror movies.” Mr Pattison, who was an officer with the West Midlands and Durham forces and now works as a taxi driver, added: “I have no confidence in any relationships.

“I cannot believe the whole situation has ended in me being scarred for life. There is no happy ending I can see. The whole thing freaks me out.”

Pattison, of Mayfield Avenue, Newcastle, had denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but admitted the lesser offence at an earlier hearing. She pleaded guilty on the basis that she perceived she needed to defend herself, but accepts what she did was beyond reasonable.