A 51-year-old man who glassed another pub drinker has failed to get a reduction in his jail term.

Peter Fothergill, of Upper Church Street, Spennymoor, County Durham, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison at Teesside Crown Court last December, after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding.

London's Criminal Appeal Court has refused to cut his term, rejecting claims it was "manifestly excessive".

David Rivers was glassed in April last year at the Victoria pub, in Spennymoor, and sustained injuries to his ear and neck.

Lord Justice Buxton said the district judge who sentenced Fothergill had said he deliberately broke the glass to enable him to use it as a weapon.

He said: "The judge's finding was that Mr Fothergill, apparently in drink, was making a nuisance of himself in the public house and Mr Rivers made to take the matter up with him."

In arguing for a sentence cut, his barrister, Donald Macfaul, said although Fothergill had a record, he had never been to jail before.

Mr Macfaul said it was a single blow and the maximum term available for the crime was five years and he was entitled to credit for his guilty plea.