A DRUNKEN reveller who could have killed another man when he smashed a glass into his neck and face told a probation officer: "I'm the real victim."

Robert Stubbs sobbed in court as he heard lawyers discussing the sentencing range of nine to 13 years' jail for offences of wounding with intent.

The 28-year-old was locked up for eight years and eight months after he admitted the charge - an attack caught on a nightclub's security cameras.

Stubbs's victim needed more than 30 stitches and staples in a gaping v-shaped wound to his neck and a smaller one on his cheek, a court was told.

He underwent three hours of surgery, had a fluid drain put into his neck, will be scarred for life and has loss of feeling down his left side.

In an impact statement, the victim told how he either turns up his collar or grows a beard to hide the wound, and is frightened to go out alone.

He said: "I cannot understand why this was done to me. I hope the person realises what he has done and is punished.

"It upsets me that I will be scarred for life. I am a quiet person who doesn't get into trouble... I am lucky to be alive. I could have died."

The victim had a child due weeks after the brutal attack at The Deck in Redcar, east Cleveland, in April, and says he has difficulty feeding his son.

The court heard how Stubbs's girlfriend is pregnant, and that he had tried to hang himself recently because he could not face going to prison.

Alex Bousfield said it seemed the shop-fitter was more concerned about the impact on himself than the victim, but insisted that he was remorseful.

In a letter to the judge, he said "I want to apologise for inflicting this vicious assault" but it also talked of "how it has affected me and my life".

In an interview with a probation officer, Stubbs, of Jackson Street, Brotton, east Cleveland, said he was the real victim of his own crime, said Mr Bousfield.

Judge Howard Crowson told him: "It could have been a great deal more serious, having had sight of the injuries you caused. I have seen the photographs."