Sunderland Man Jailed For Maiming Peacemaker

By Hugh Macknight Location: South Shields

A teenager was left blind in one eye when she stepped in to stop a violent thug from attacking her friends with a broken wine bottle.

Megan Kerrigan took the full force of the jagged glass in her face when Andrew Wyness lashed out on Wenlock Road in South Shields, South Tyneside, on March 17.

The 17-year-old was left with devastating damage to her left eye, which her doctor said was the "most severe injury" he had ever seen in a young woman.

She has been left scarred for life and has lost two thirds of the coloured iris of her left eye.

Medics managed to save her eye but she is unlikely to ever regain her full sight.

Wyness, 23, of Bradford Avenue, Sunderland, was jailed for 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court.

The thug, who admitted wounding with intent, has multiple previous convictions for violence and even cruelty to an animal.

Judge Penny Moreland said: "You used a jagged bottle as a weapon against a 17-year-old girl who was unarmed.

"Nothing she did that night begins to justify what you did to her.

"The consequences of what you did to her are appalling.

"She has to live with all that for the rest of her life."

In her victim impact statement, Megan, now 18, said: "I had beautiful eyes. I used to take pride and use make-up to accentuate the look of my eyes.

"I am not sure if I ever will do again.

"I feel very conscious of people staring at me, children stare.

"My self esteem is getting lower and lower.

"It will live with me forever."

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