A teenager who hit a pubgoer in the face with a pint glass after saying he ‘danced like a ballerina’ has been warned he faces jail.

Joseph Ridsdale attacked victim Richard Troughton at the Railway Pub on Blackburn Road in Accrington in December last year.

When police were called to the scene, they saw Ridsdale running away and chased after him and later found his blood-stained top in a nearby car park bin.

Ridsdale, 19, of Marsden Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and Judge Beverley Lunt has warned him that custody is ‘inevitable’.

Mr Troughton was dancing inside the bar when Ridsdale walked by and told him he was ‘dancing like a ballerina’.

Later on, the victim spoke to Ridsdale before the defendant grabbed a pint glass and hit him in the face.

Mr Troughton’s face went ‘numb’ and there was blood running down his face before Ridsdale punched him several times causing him to fall to the floor.

Paramedics and police were called at around 11pm on December 4 and by the time police had chased after him Ridsdale had removed his top.

Officers later found his top stained with blood in an industrial bin on a car park off Willow Street which matched his tracksuit bottoms.

Mr Troughton suffered a cut to the nose and cheek and a deep laceration to his head revealing skull bone.

Defence barrister Mark Stuart said Ridsdale was 18 at the time of the offence.

Judge Lunt told Ridsdale that he was ‘staring custody in the face’ and that he had breached several previous court orders.

She told the court: “He’s not got a good record and he’s had chance after chance with rehabilitation and supervision orders. There’s going to have to be a pre-sentence report.

“With the number of rehabilitation orders this man has been on, somebody needs to be looking at all of his notes and records.

“At the moment he is staring custody in the face. He has run out of chances now.

“It seems to me a sentence of custody is inevitable but that will be decided when the reports have been read.”

Ridsdale was bailed to appear for sentence on Wednesday, May 18.