A KNIFE-carrying man smashed a beer glass over the head of his unsuspecting victim during a drink-fuelled night out in a Hampshire village.

Ben Mair also punched his victim’s girlfriend as she attempted to come to the aid of her partner.

At Southampton Crown Court, the 26-year-old was jailed for the attack, described by a judge as “entirely unprovoked”.

The court heard how the attack took place when Mair was on a night out in Milford-on-Sea, in December last year.

Prosecutor Tom Wilkins said Mair’s victim, his partner and his friends were drinking at wine bar, The Cave, when the group decided to walk out onto the village green and on to the nearby Smugglers Inn.

Mr Wilkins said as the group were leaving, a joke was exchanged with Mair, who was attempting to get into The Cave.

Mr Wilkins said: “Mair ran out on to the green and came up behind his victim and he struck him on the head with a beer glass.

“His (the victim’s) girlfriend intervened and Mair punched her, causing bruises.”

Mr Wilkins said Mair was later arrested and found to be in possession of a knife, while the victim of the glass attack needed hospital treatment for a cut to his head.

Mair admitted causing actual bodily harm (ABH), one count of assault and one count of possession of a bladed article.

In mitigation, Mair’s solicitor, Tim Scarisbrick, said his client had not made any threats with the knife.

He described a pre-sentence report, written about Mair by the probation service, was “positive” and asked judge Gary Burrell QC to consider suspending any sentence.

However, Judge Burrell said the offences were “too serious” to impose a suspended sentence.

He said: “This was an entirely unprovoked attack on someone who had done absolutely nothing to you. 

“You just got irritated by them for some reason, perhaps because you had been drinking.

“But they were perfectly decent people just going about their business.”
Judge Burrell jailed Mair, of Somers Road, Welham Green, Hertfordshire, to a four-month jail sentence for the possession of a knife.

He imposed a concurrent four-month sentence for the assault with the beer glass and a concurrent two-month sentence for the punch on the woman.