When James Montgomery went for a pint at his local, he had no idea what lay in store.
Later that evening he was beaten by another pub-goer in an attack so violent, the father-of-one feared he would die.
James, 56, had gone out drinking in the Stobie area of Dundee with John Smith, 61, of Whitfield, when the atmosphere turned sour.
Brian Borland, 52, took offence to a comment made about his former wife and flung himself at James and John, who are brothers.
He pulled the pair to the ground and repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on them before fleeing the pub.
James spent two days unconscious in hospital and has subsequently lost feeling down one side of his face and he suffers random blackouts.
Borland was sentenced to 32 months in prison on Tuesday after previously admitting to the assaults carried out in October, but today, James told the Tele it wasn’t enough.
He said: “I think it’s ridiculous. He’s a beast, he nearly killed me and he should have got a life sentence.
“He did it when I was paralytically drunk and I couldn’t defend myself.
“I’ve written to the procurator fiscal to appeal the decision as I deserve justice and I’m afraid that sentence is not enough.”
James — who lives in the Hilltown with wife Donna, 31, and three-year-old daughter Jamie-Leigh — said it had been just a normal night until he and his brother were attacked.
He said: “Me and my brother went for a drink in the Windsor and we’d been to a few other bars before that. We were about to go home, but we had a falling out with Brian.
“He ripped off his jacket and came running at me. Brian pinned me to the floor and knocked me unconscious.
“I obviously didn’t see what happened next, but he apparently went after my brother and knocked him to the floor too, ran back to me and started hitting my face.
“When my brother started getting back up again Brian hit him again.
“He repeatedly kicked and stamped on my face when I was completely defenceless. I couldn’t protect myself.
“Apparently the bar staff walked right past me, but they must have been frightened of Brian.
“My brother put me in a taxi and the driver apparently said ‘Jesus Christ’ when he saw us and called an ambulance.
“I woke up in Ninewells Hospital. I had been unconscious for two days and I didn’t know what day it was.”
It was a night that changed James’s life as he finds it hard to go outside and hasn’t been for a drink since.
He said: “It turned out I had two bones broken in my face and I now have no feeling on the right-hand side of my face.
“I’m on tablets for the rest of my life, I don’t drink at all anymore either as I’m too scared.
“I barely go outside — this whole thing has changed my life.
“Brian is my ex brother-in-law and we got on great until that night — it shouldn’t have happened.”
Borland, a prisoner at Perth, admitted assaulting James to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life, at the Windsor Bar, Albert Street, on
October 14 last year. He also admitted assaulting John to his injury, on the same date and location.
When sentencing, Sheriff George Way said: “You took these men down but you weren’t prepared to stop there, you brutally assaulted a man who was already on the ground and was clearly seriously injured.”
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