A VIOLENT drunk once jailed for life for glassing his brother is back behind bars for knocking out his wife's front teeth.

Gordon Diprose was given an extended sentence for public protection with three years in prison and three years of licence after his release.

Judge Simon Hickey, at Teesside Crown Court, told the alcoholic 48-year-old: "I find you dangerous unhesitatingly given your record."

In 2003, he got a life sentence for wounding with intent and actual bodily harm – when he also kicked his pregnant sister-in-law in the stomach.

A decade earlier, he was jailed for three years for wounding with intent when he stabbed a man during a row about urinating in a garden in York.

The year before that, Diprose got a suspended sentence for threatening the boss of a seaside diner with a knife sharpener as he tried to leave without paying.

Jonathan Harley, mitigating, said Diprose had been a "functioning alcoholic" from the age of 16, but had started drinking before then.

He told Judge Hickey: "If he gets rid of that part of his personality, any threat of violence will disappear. It's as simple as that."

The court heard that Diprose and his wife – now seeking a divorce after seven years together – had been drinking at a friend's flat last September.

When they returned to their home in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, she asked him to leave after he made an offensive remark about her daughter.

As his wife was on the phone to police, he repeatedly smashed her in the face and knocked out her two front teeth.

Diprose denied the attack and had a trial, but was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after a jury heard what a judge called the "distressing" 999 call in which screams of pain can be heard during the assault.

Judge Hickey told Diprose: "The evidence was overwhelming. I consider you are going to cause a risk of serious harm. You are a danger."

In a statement, Diprose's victim, who has since sought the help of My a refuge, said: "I have suffered years of mental torture and abuse. He is an angry and violent man.

"It is only now I am getting help I realise how badly he treated me. I used to blame myself, but have realised with help from My Sister's Place that I didn't do anything wrong."