A TAXI driver who was left scarred for life after being attacked by a teenage passenger has criticised a judge for cutting his assailant's sentence.

Daniel Joseph Woods, 18, had his minimum prison term cut from four years to three years yesterday for attacking Elroy McArthur.

Mr McArthur, who was left with a four-inch scar after the attack, said: "It is scandalous. The police phoned me up last week to inform me he was appealing against his sentence.

"He should see me. I have got a four-inch scar on my face. I have got to suffer all my life.

"He should have got more than four years."

Woods, of Gordon Hill Lane, Preston, Lancashire, got into Mr McArthur's taxi at Darlington station in November 2005.

Woods, then 16, asked to be taken to Catterick to visit his girlfriend.

When they arrived at Catterick, the teenager, who was sitting in the back of the car, slashed Mr McArthur's cheek with a lock-type knife, and stabbed him in the thigh before the driver, in a state of panic, jumped out of the vehicle and Woods ran off.

Woods was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court in March to detention for public protection (DPP), an indefinite term similar to a life sentence, for a minimum of four years after he admitted wounding with intent and breaching an anti-social behaviour order.

Lord Justice Gage, Mr Justice Treacy and Mr Justice Ramsey, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, reduced the sentence to three years yesterday.

The court heard that Mr McArthur was too panicked to contact the emergency services immediately after the attack, but instead drove to hospital in Darlington "holding the flap of his cheek in place".

He received 43 stitches to the wound in his face and eight more to a stab in his thigh.

Lord Justice Gage said: "We are of the view, taking account of the age, improved conduct since the offence, and the things that have been said about his change of attitude in prison, that this sentence was too long.

"We think that a sentence of DPP was appropriate, but we alter that by substituting the period of four years for one of three years. This appeal is allowed."