A 56-YEAR-OLD man who turned to drink after losing his job has been jailed for repeatedly punching and kicking a punter in a city centre bar.

Alan Carter had drunk 12 pints of lager the night he attacked Leslie Doughty in D.Gio's Bar in Derby.

Carter left Mr Doughty with his face covered in blood – he needed 20 stitches for two gashes on his forehead.

Derby Crown Court heard that Carter had no "proper recollection of what had happened".

Stuart Lody, in mitigation, said Carter, of Windmill Hill Lane, Derby, had been talking to an ex-partner in the bar when somebody told him that Mr Doughty had said something unpleasant about her daughter.

"For reasons he simply cannot explain he went and attacked this man in the way described," said Mr Lody.

The court heard that witnesses had seen Carter grab Mr Doughty and repeatedly punch him in the face. They told the police that Mr Doughty had been cowering and tried to protect his face, after which Carter began to kick him.

Sentencing Carter to four months in jail, Judge David Pugsley said: "I'm sorry but you're going to prison. Alcohol-fuelled aggression has got to stop.

"It has to be brought home – you chose to drink, you pay the consequences of that."

Carter admitted causing grievous bodily harm.

Mr Lody said Carter's alcohol problem had started after he was made redundant from his job at Toyota.

Mr Lody said: "He could no longer keep up his payments for his mortgage and lost his house. He accumulated large debts of £20,000.

"He was a man who had effectively, through no fault of his own, lost everything."