A MAN is beginning a seven-year prison sentence after attacking another man with a beer bottle and leaving his victim fearing for his life.

Gethin Fowler had drunk 24 bottles of beer on the day of the attack - August 17 last year - in Blackwood.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court was told that Fowler's victim went to visit a friend at his flat in Blackwood High Street, at about 11pm that evening.

Prosecuting counsel Christopher Rees said that when the friend opened the door, Fowler was behind him, "shouting and being very aggressive".

He threatened to attack an associate of the victim's friend who he believed was in the flat.

At this stage, the subsequent victim was not the subject of Fowler's rage, said Mr Rees, but his friend went back into his flat and Fowler accused the victim of lying to him.

"He then smashed the bottle over his forehead,"said Mr Rees.

"He was brandishing the remains and lunged with the jagged edge of the bottle at his face."

Fowler's victim protected his face with his hands, and his fingers were cut by the glass.

He fell to the floor and Fowler continued to attack him, kicking him to the legs and body.

The victim crawled towards the door of the flat and took more blows to the back of his head before managing to scramble in.

"He feared for his life," said Mr Rees.

Fowler tried to get into the flat before police arrived and he was arrested.

His victim was left with a cut six centimetres long down his forehead to his nose. He also suffered bruising and swelling.

Fowler, who at the time lived in the same flats complex, said he had drunk 24 bottles of beer that day.

He denied using a bottle on his victim but said he had headbutted him.

Defence counsel Kevin Seal said Fowler had been placed at the flats after a period of homelessness, and found himself among people with problems like he had.

"It is clear he has a problem when he drinks. This was a very big wake-up call to him," said Mr Seal.

He added that since the incident Fowler, knowing what he faced, has used the time to re-establish his relationship with his partner and their child, and has stopped drinking.

"There was no justification for what he did. He wishes to apologise to both (the victim and his friend) for his behaviour," said Mr Seal.

Judge Tom Crowther acknowledged that Fowler, by stopping drinking, had taken the first steps in addressing his problems,

He accepted too, that Fowler had shown remorse, but added: "It offers little comfort to your victim."

That victim, said Judge Crowther, was left "helpless and bleeding, with significant defensive wounds to his fingers".

Fowler, who pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, will serve half his sentence in prison, and half on licence.