A LOUT who glassed a stranger after boozing on his prescribed mental health medication is starting a 12-month prison sentence.

James Irvine was told by a judge that he had repeatedly failed to heed the warning signs of taking the potentially-fatal cocktail.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Irvine had been involved in violent outbursts in 2008 and 2011 when he had combined the two things.

Last December, he had downed eight cans of premium strength lager at his Stockton home before going into town to meet a friend.

In the PoundPub, an exchange of words must have taken place, before he smashed a glass into the side of a 55-year-old's face.

The victim suffered what prosecutor David Crook called "extensive deep lacerations down to the cartilage" on his right ear.

Hospital doctors also had to stitch damage to an artery, and in an impact statement, he said: "I didn't deserve what happened."

In an interview, 39-year-old Irvine admitted he could not remember why it happened, but he would not usually do something like that.

Mr Crook told the judge, Recorder Tim Roberts, QC, that Irvine was convicted of affray as well as battery in 2008, and battery in 2011.

Irvine, of Acacia Road, Stockton, admitted a charge of wounding when he appeared in court on an earlier occasion.

Mr Recorder Roberts told him: "It is a terrible state of affairs you are in when you can strike a man in the head with a glass and put him in hospital and have no recollection of how you have done it and why you have done it.

"That indicates to me a danger to the public that my duty urges me to guard against."

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, described Irvine as "a complex character" who has had mental health, physiological and alcohol problems.

He said he "foolishly" agreed to to out in public to meet a friend when he had been drinking in the "controlled environment" of his home.

"He is described by his probation officer as someone who takes full responsibility for his actions and someone who is fully aware of the harm he has caused, and is full of genuine remorse and regret," said Mr Constantine.

The judge told Irvine: "You are someone who is well aware that when he drinks and has medication, he has previously committed offences of violence.

"The probation officer says you have knowledge of this flaw in your character for a number of years and it seems you have repeatedly failed to heed the warning signs of avoiding the over-indulgence of alcohol and getting involved in violent incidents."