An engineer who almost killed a clubber in a glass attack has avoided jail after a judge heard he would lose his “very good job” if he ended up behind bars.
Ricky Mayhew glassed 32-year-old Luke McKiernan in the neck, resulting in a six-inch gash which required 30 stitches, after he bumped into him on a nightclub dancefloor.
Two women were also injured by flying shards of glass in the attack.
Mayhew, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, admitted maliciously wounding and assaulting two women who were hit by flying shards of glass.
Graeme Simpson, mitigating, said: “I concede this case crosses the custody threshold, but the purpose of my submission is to seek to persuade Your Honour to suspend the sentence.”
He said Mayhew, 32, left the Clink Cellar Bar, in Leamington, after the incident, but later handed himself in to the police, adding: “But for that he may never have been traced. It’s down to him doing the right thing that he’s here.
“He has expressed shame and horror at the injuries he caused.”
Mr Simpson said Mayhew had a degree in engineering and a “very good job in management”, which he would lose if he was jailed, which would “set him back years.”
Sentencing him at Warwick Crown Court, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC agreed but said: “That is a deliberate act.
“It’s a wound to the most vulnerable part of the body.
“A centimetre or so either way, and it would have severed an artery. I have no doubt Mr McKiernan had taken drink, as had you.
“I find that Mr McKiernan bumped into you and put his arm round your shoulder, but I don’t see it go round your neck.
“You glassed him. It could have hit a major artery, and it required a large number of stitches. You went home. You didn’t care if he was bleeding on the floor.”
Prosecutor Jennifer Josephs said that on August 27 last year Mayhew had been to various pubs in Leamington before ending up at the Clink Cellar Bar in Warwick Street.
At shortly after midnight Mr McKiernan bumped into Mayhew on the dancefloor and turned to speak to him, putting his arm on his shoulder as he leaned forward to talk to him.
The defendant reacted by pushing him away, raising his glass, stopping and then hitting him to the neck with the glass.
Mayhew, of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, admitted maliciously wounding and assaulting two women who were hit by flying shards of glass.
He was handed a 20-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to pay Mr McKiernan £2,000 compensation.
The engineer was also ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work and given a 7pm to 7am curfew and told to wear an electronic tag for six months.