A DRUNKEN brute stabbed a Tesco worker in the face after following him home from the store.

Neil Orr, 26 plunged a pen into his victim's face with such force, the Biro snapped in the man's cheek - leaving him needing emergency treatment at a specialist facial injuries clinic.

Orr was jailed for 16 months after pleading guilty to stabbing the man in Murdieston Street minutes before he was due to stand trial on Monday.

Depute fiscal Brian Maguire told Greenock Sheriff Court the 27-year-old victim had finished a shift at Tesco and was walking home past Chaplins bar when he was spotted by the accused, who had been attending an 18th birthday party.

He added: "The complainer became aware he was being followed as he walked along Inverkip Street towards the train station.

"He crossed the street several times and the accused did the same. Scared, the man decided to ring police and while he was on the phone, was approached by the accused who demanded he hand over the phone, all of which was heard by officers.

"Orr then struck the man in the face, who at first thought he had been punched. He then realised part of a Biro was embedded in his face." The court heard the victim was rushed to the Southern General where medics managed to remove the pen under local anaesthetic.

Mr Maguire added: "There had been concerns at the time as to potential lasting damage but the man didn't suffer any long-term injury as a result of the assault." Defence solicitor Terry Gallanagh said his client, of Florence Street, Greenock, had admitted the brutal attack to spare his victim the trauma of having to give evidence.

He added: "He remembers little about the incident on 17 January due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed.

"He works full-time as a labourer and is currently working building a local primary school.

"He has a partner and young child and is sickened by his behaviour to the extent that he offers his unreserved apologies to the victim." Jailing Orr, Sheriff John Herald said: "Here was a man, finishing his work and walking home, followed and assaulted.

"He was stabbed in the face and a pen left lodged in his face and it is more luck than anything else that you don't appear on more serious charges.

"There is only one appropriate disposal."