A drunk teenager who hit a retired man over the head with a pint glass after saying he ‘danced like a ballerina’ has been locked up.

Joseph Ridsdale (pictured) attacked 65-year-old victim Richard Troughton at the Railway Pub on Blackburn Road in Accrington in December last year.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Ridsdale, 19, had been with a group of friends and between them had drunk two litres of spirits and a crate of Strongbow.

Father-of-one Ridsdale then fled the scene and was chased by police who later found his blood-stained top in a nearby car park bin.

Ridsdale, of Marsden Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty to ABH and was sent to a young offenders institute for 14 months.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, said Mr Troughton was enjoying a night out and dancing at the pub when Ridsdale shouted ‘what are you dancing like a ballerina for?’.

The court heard how the victim replied ‘What’s wrong? I’m just having a dance. Sorry if I have done something to offend you’.

Ridsdale then ‘squared up’ to Mr Troughton before hitting him over the head with a pint glass causing it to smash and the victim to fall to the floor sideways.

The court heard how he received a ‘gaping wound’ to his eyebrow and brow of his nose and if it had been ‘half a centimetre lower’ he would have lost an eye.

Mr Parker said Ridsdale was aggressive in the back of the police van and when interviewed at the station claimed he had been receiving drinks from a friend and believed they had been ‘spiked’.

Emma Gilsenan, defending, said Ridsdale had not drunk since the incident, had started to ‘turn the corner’ and ‘recognises he has to make changes to his life’.

She said the incident was ‘out of character’ and he has no previous convictions for violence.

She said: “Clearly alcohol was a factor here. He was naïve to think he could consume the alcohol he did.

"It’s a harsh lesson for him and had horrific consequences for Mr Troughton.”

Sentencing, Recorder Simon Medland QC said: “For absolutely no reason whatsoever you struck him over the head with the pint glass. It was a matter of complete chance that the injuries were not worse.

“This is far from the first time you have been in trouble and many attempts have been made in the past to keep you on the straight and narrow.”