A ‘VIOLENT and dangerous’ thug has been locked up for six and a half years after a brutal attack on a woman which left her missing two teeth and scarred for life.

Dean Sturgess, of Danvers Road, Oxford, was found guilty by a jury of six men and six women of wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Tiffany Kent at Gloucester Green, Oxford on August 24.

He had initially denied the attack which sent her hurling into a market stand and knocked unconscious, claiming he had instead pushed her.

During his trial the 30-year old also pleaded guilty to a separate attack at the Red Lion pub, Abingdon on August 29 2015 which left a man unconscious after a single punch.

In sentencing, Judge Peter Ross at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday called Sturgess vicious and ‘undoubtedly a dangerous offender’ with a serious problem with drink.

He said: “You are a young man with two principle problems it seems to me. You are violent and you have a problem with alcohol.

“You have a bad record of violence towards a woman. Alcohol features in virtually all of your violent offending.”

He added: “What is clear is that Miss Kent will live with the results of your criminal behaviour. At a young age she has been seriously scarred.

“It was a vicious and unprovoked attack and it rendered her unconscious and seriously injured.

“She has suffered the inevitable psychological impact of that. It must have been very distressing for her.”

The trial heard that Sturgess had been ‘paralytic’ with drink on the night he dragged and pulled Miss Kent towards Gloucester Green in Oxford before launching into the attack which sent her into a market stand and left her with scarring to her face and missing teeth.

For the separate charge of assault on Mr Coleman at the Red Lion Pub, for which he pleaded guilty, the court heard that Coleman was left unconscious after being struck with a single punch.

Miss Tate, prosecuting, said: “Mr Coleman states that Sturgess had a pint glass in his left hand at the time.

“Mr Coleman was knocked unconscious and only woke up in an ambulance in the accident and emergency room.

“He received seven stitches to a cut on his forehead and he was confused three hours after the assault after being unconscious for four or five minutes.”

Throughout the trial Sturgess was also heard to shout into the public gallery and made ‘rude gestures’ at the complainant throughout, the court heard.

For attacking Miss Kent he was sentenced to four years in prison, and for the assault on Mr Coleman he was jailed for a further two and a half years, totalling six and a half years in prison.