A THUG subjected a complete stranger to a horrifying bottle attack because he overheard him talking in Polish.

Josh Greig, 22, continued his violence for three terrifying minutes.

As he jailed him for five years, Carlisle Crown Court judge David Potter told Greig - who at one point tried to blame his victim - that his actions were motivated by racial hostility.

Julian Goode, prosecuting, said the victim was talking to a friend in the city’s Barrock Street on the morning of Saturday, August 3, when Greig walked past and overheard him talking.

Greig demanded to know where he was from. That encounter ended with the two men shaking hands.

Minutes later, the defendant returned, this time insulting the victim’s language.

Again he demanded to know where the two friends were from, prompting the victim to reply: “Poland.”

Mr Goode said: “The defendant spat in his face, which the victim had to wipe off. The defendant then slapped the victim’s face.”

Greig then grabbed an empty Jack Daniels bottle from the street and ran at the men, shouting that he would kill them. The bottle smashed when he dropped it but Greig picked it up.

He lunged with it at his victim, the broken glass gouging the man’s elbow as tried to defend himself.

Describing the effect on the man, Mr Goode said: “His hand was covered in blood.

“He started to lose sensation in his hand; and his arm became floppy." He could see a ‘hole’ in his arm, the wound being so deep that bone was exposed, the court heard.

Despite that injury, Greig was determined to continue his attack. From a nearby skip, he grabbed a stick with a nail embedded in it; and then he found a knife, pursuing the two men when they fled.

As they sheltered behind a wooden gate, Greig stabbed the blade through the gaps, trying to cause further injury.

The defendant ran off as police arrived but he was arrested soon after hiding in a cupboard at nearby flats.

Greig, of Highfield Avenue, Morton, admitted wounding with intent and possessing a knife in a public place.

Jeff Smith, for the defendant, said: “He can provide no explanation.” He said that Greig had been “dragged up”, his mother having been a drug user and a drug dealer; and his stepfather being a “violent drug user”.

Greig denied the attack was racially motivated, claiming he had former Polish girlfriends.

But as he summarised the moment Greig turned violent, Judge Potter told the defendant: “I have no doubt that what happened next was motivated by hostility because he was Polish.”

The victim spent a week in hospital, and was expected to make a good recovery but after seeing Greig in Carlisle following the attack, he had moved away from the city.