By Andrea McCallum
A CARER left scarred after a drunken thug smashed a glass into his face says he is now too scared to go out to the pub.
George Cowe, 39, was left with scars to his face after unemployed Barry Rutherford launched the unprovoked attack in a pub.
Now George says his life has been affected to the point where his family fear for his safety every time he leaves his home in Eskview Avenue, Musselburgh.
He said: “I don’t go out any more, really, and I have only been out once since the incident.
“I just feel wary of people around me when I’m out now.
“Something like this has never happened to me before and obviously you don’t expect it to happen to you or anyone else.
“It’s only a matter of time before he does serious damage to someone else.”
On the evening of August 1, father-of-four Cowe had been out with friends from his local bowling club celebrating an annual tournament.
After visiting the local drinking spots, the five pals moved to the Mayfair pub, Olivebank, where they met up with one of the group’s daughter.
And it was there that the 39-year-old – who works as a full-time carer for his 14-year-old son Christopher – suffered at the hands of Barry Rutherford who punched him in the face whilst holding a glass.
He said: “In all the time that pub has been there, I’ve only been there about three times but I have no intention of going back, not after this incident.
“I was just dancing on the dance floor with my friend’s daughter and her friend – I had never spoken to this guy [Rutherford] before in my life and the next thing I know it had happened.
“It happened so fast that there was no time for me to react or anything. He came around and attacked me from the back.
“I fell and when I looked round, someone was pointing at Barry.”
Rutherford, 18, from Wallyford, later pleaded guilty to striking George Cowe in the face with a glass or bottle which broke, all to his injury and permanent disfigurement, whilst at the Mayfair public house on Olivebank Road in Musselburgh on August 2.
At Haddington Sheriff Court yesterday Procurator Fiscal Adrian Fraser said a witness screamed when Rutherford punched George in the face and saw Rutherford with a bloody hand.
Colm Dempsey, Rutherford’s solicitor, described his client a “troubled”.
He said: “On the night of the incident he had been out with friends and earlier on the complainer had bumped into him on a number of occasions and thought it was deliberate.”
“Unfortunately, at the time of punching him he had the glass in his hand.
“It is not a case that he punched it into his face. It wasn’t a case where the glass was thrust, it was in his hand at the time.”
Rutherford was sentenced to 10 months in a young offenders institute for the assault.
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