A BRUTE who used a beer bottle to attack another pub-goer – who he believed had given him “funny looks” – sobbed in the dock as he was jailed up for eight months.

Father-of-four Darren Wadsworth was caught on camera knocking the man to the floor and kicking him - yet still denied doing so.

He admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm but disputed the use of the weapon and his foot in the attack.

At a mini-trial before magistrates - known as a Newton Hearing - his version of events was kicked out of court.

And now the 23-year-old is starting his first prison sentence and will be apart from his partner and children.

His girlfriend also broke down in the public gallery as heavily-tattooed Wadsworth told her: “Let my brother know.”

Teesside Crown Court heard that there appeared to be little reason for the attack in the Stockton pub in November.

Wadsworth told a probation officer that his victim had refused to acknowledge him and gave him “funny looks”.

His lawyer, Garry Wood, told the court: “The complainant doesn’t even accept that there was a disagreement.

“But the defendant seems to believe there was . . . clearly, an incredible overreaction in the circumstances.”

The court heard how the victim - in his 30s - suffered cuts to his eyebrow and ears and a badly-swollen black eye.

In a statement, he told how he will be left with scarring to his face and does not want go out who people can see his injuries.

Wadsworth sat with his head bowed throughout proceedings, and would not look at the CCTV footage played in court.

The pictures from The Cattlemarket pub showed a swift attack, which Judge Peter Armstrong said had no clear motive.

“It clearly shows you walking past and coming back to him and striking him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

“When he was in the floor, you kicked him,” Judge Armstrong told him. “It was all over very quickly.

“But that sort of gratuitous violence in a public house by somebody with a bottle or glass has the potential for causing very serious injuries.”

Wadsworth, who lives with his brother in Pearl Street, Thornaby, near Stockton, wept when the judge told him he had to be jailed.

“I’m afraid if you are using a bottle or a glass in a pub to strike someone else, you can only expect immediate imprisonment.”