A drunk Hadleigh man accused of an unprovoked “glassing” attack on a stranger in an Ipswich nightspot has been cleared of wounding him with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Before Ipswich Crown Court was Lisle Mowles, 28, of Clopton Gardens, Hadleigh, who had denied wounding Carl Ball with intent to do him grievous bodily harm on December 24, 2016. He was cleared by a jury after a two day trial.

The court heard that before the start of his trial Mowles had admitted a less serious charge of unlawfully wounding Mr Ball and he is now awaiting sentence for that offence.

During Mowles’ trial the court heard that Mr Ball was standing at a bar in Degero’s in St Nicholas Street during a night out with friends when Mowles got up from where he was sitting and walked three metres over to him and hit him with an object, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

“No words were exchanged and to this day the victim doesn’t know why he was glassed in the face,” said Raj Joshi, prosecuting.

As a result of the attack Mr Ball suffered cuts to the top of his eye and below his eye, a cut to the side of the head and a perforated ear drum.

Mr Joshi said that following the attack Mr Ball found glass fragments in one of the wounds.

A police officer who attended the scene also saw a small piece of glass in the cut above the victim’s eye.

Mr Joshi said that immediately after the attack, which was captured on CCTV, Mowles had been escorted from the premises by a doorman and he was arrested shortly afterwards by police officers on patrol who saw him covered in blood.

During police interviews Mowles said he had been out with his girlfriend since 6pm and had been drinking vodka and Red Bull.

He told officers he was so drunk he couldn’t remember what happened on the night in question.

After seeing CCTV footage of the incident he accepted he had caused Mr Ball’s injuries.

“The issue for you is whether he intended to cause serious injury or not,” Mr Joshi told the jury.