'Centimetres from a murder charge': Social club thug jailed for slashing man's neck with broken bottle

The man's larynx and trachea were left exposed after the gruesome attack by Garry Potts in the St John's Terrace Working Men's Club in Normanton.

Potts, who has served a prison sentence before for glassing a man, was given a total of eight years and eight months' jail, including a four-year extended license period.

Prosecuting the case at Leeds Crown Court, Heather Gilmore said that 38-year-old Potts had been at the Queen Elizabeth Drive club on the evening of March 18.

It was busy because of a private party in one room, and the Leeds United match was also being screened.

The police were called in the evening because of Potts' drunken behaviour, but he left before they arrived.

He then returned at around 10.30pm, and while staff refused to serve him, he was not asked to leave.

Shortly before then, the 23-year-old victim had arrived to meet friends and had sat near the fruit machine in the pool room.

Potts then approached him and told him to move, to get access to the machine.

When the man jokingly asked him to say please, but Potts picked up a bottle, smashed it and slashed the man's neck while holding the man's head back with his other hand.

Witnesses described blood "spurting out" of the stricken man while Potts walked away calmly.

The man was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he needed surgery on the two-inch wound which had exposed his larynx and trachea, as well as a bleeding artery.

He was discharged the next day but an impact statement read out in court said that he had three months of work, still suffers from pain and will be left with a permanent scar.

Police put out an appeal to find Potts, and he was eventually arrested on May 14 while staying in a hotel in Wakefield due to work.

He gave a no-comment interview to police, but later admitted GBH with intent, and possession of an offensive weapon.

The court was told that Potts was jailed in 2018 for attacking a with a glass at a house party. Click here to read that story.Mitigating for his latest offence, James Littlehales said that Potts recognised he had a drink problem and an "inevitable substantial sentence" was expected.

He said that Potts was also "genuinely remorseful" for his actions.

Potts, of Benson Lane, Normanton, appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds where he has been held on remand, and spent much of the sentencing with his head in his hands.

Judge Neil Clark told him: "You held his head and thrust the bottle into his neck, twisting it.

"The injury was significant, it was deep and unpleasant and highly dangerous.

"It was matter of centimetres away from being a murder charge. You have a history of violence."