Man glassed in casino attack (From Thurrock Gazette)

Man glassed in casino attack

7:30am Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

The injuries to Ben Garrett

A TEENAGER from Corringham was glassed in the face at a seafront casino.

The violence erupted at the Genting Club, in Western Esplanade, Southend.

Ben Garrett, 19, pictured, had to have stitches around his mouth and to the bridge of his nose, after a glass shattered in his face.

He also had a chunk gouged out of his skin near his ear, which surgeons were unable to stitch back together.

He said: “It’s hard for me to walk outside because people are looking at me. I look like Frankenstein.

“Some of the cuts are so close to my eyes it could have been catastrophic and the lowlife that did it needs to be caught. It’s a gutless thing to do.”

Mr Garrett was drinking at the bar with a friend when the attacker’s group approached.

He said: “The last thing I remember is a group of boys coming over and taking the mickey out of my mate because he’s short and ginger, and then they were getting quite aggressive.

“The next thing I knew I’d been hit with a pint glass.”

He believes he then lost consciousness and awoke in hospital where he had to have surgery.

Police want to speak to witnesses who may have seen the attack in the bar area at about 2.30am last Friday. Det Con Luke Dangerfield said “There was a female with the suspect’s group who we are keen to speak to, because we think she came back to check on the welfare of the man who had been glassed.”

The attacker was white, slim, aged in his twenties or thirties. He had short dark hair and wore jeans and a grey hoodie.

He also had an injury to his right hand, likely to be from the broken glass.

Anyone with any information should call Det Con Dangerfield on 101.