A violent teenage thug repeatedly smashed in bottle into the face of a taxi driver after he was squirted in his eyes with a noxious liquid during a mob-handed robbery.

Declan Day and two other unidentified assailants launched the vicious attack on the man after getting him to take them to quiet area of Park End in Middlesbrough.

The 18-year was not satisfied with attacking the taxi driver and robbing him once, he left and returned to the parked car and repeatedly punched him and hit to the face with a bottle on a two further occasions.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the victim suffered cuts and bruising to his face, head and leg as well as requiring hospital treatment to rinse the alkaline solution out of his eyes.

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Uzma Khan, prosecuting, said the gang attack left the taxi driver fearful of working late nights and he now refused to pick up young customers in case he is attacked again.

Describing the attack, she said: “One of them grabbed the keys out of the ignition and he was struck repeatedly to his with the bottle.

“They then kicked and punched him while trying to pull him from the car before they took all his money from his pockets.

“He believed he was safe after they had left but the defendant returned and he tried to lock the doors but because they had the car keys they kept opening the doors and started hitting him again.

“They left but returned for a third time, hitting him repeatedly to the leg, the bottle was then thrown at him and it smashed the car window.”

Miss Khan said the brutal attack left the driver dishevelled, vomiting and barely conscious, after they robbed her for £120.

The Northern Echo: Declan DayDeclan Day (Image: Cleveland Police)

Day, of Overdale Road, Middlesbrough, was found guilty of robbery and causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He had pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker when he spat at a police officer as he was arrested after hiding on the roof of a bingo hall.

The two other people involved in the violent attack in the early hours of May 12 last year have not been located, the court heard.

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John Nixon, mitigating, said his client continues to deny being responsible for the attack and disputes that he was the person caught on CCTV getting into the taxi on Parliament Road, Middlesbrough.

Judge Jonathan Carroll passed an extended nine-year sentence for the teenager due to the persistent and brutal attack on the taxi driver.

He said: “These offences are genuinely shocking in the extent of the group violence you engaged in and the persistence with which the offence was committed.

“It was persistent and gratuitously in excess of what was needed for you to take your victim’s money.”