A Bristol man's life may be changed forever – because of a packet of cigarettes.

Landlord Ricky Townsend would have gone to work on Friday, presumably thinking it would be just another normal day.

By the early hours of Saturday, he was in hospital with doctors fighting to save his sight.

And it was all because he had the audacity to point out that a teenager was being verbally abusive to a friend.

The young man – in fact, let's call him a hooligan or a yob – had insulted Mr Townsend's friend and when this was pointed out to him, he challenged both men to a fight.

The situation escalated with the end result that an object was thrown at Mr Townsend which sliced open his eyeball.

Doctors say there is no certainty he will regain the sight in his eye.

This is a case which should make decent people despair as well as feeling anger towards the hooligan and sympathy for Mr Townsend.

Yet again a teenage lout, prowling our streets in the early hours, has caused serious injury to a man whose only crime was to act like a decent human being.

We can only hope that this dangerous thug is caught before he does any more damage. He appears to have next to no qualities which make him fit to be part of normal society.

His actions from the off were hostile and disrespectful and he topped this off with a show of aggression and violence.

Often we have the debate about criminals and their sentences.

This moron, if and when he is caught, needs to be taken off our streets for a long time.

There would still be no guarantee that even a lengthy prison sentence would sort him out but at least it would keep the rest of us safe.

The worst-case scenario is that he is caught, given and slap on the wrists and then – bearing in mind his apparent dim-wittedness – he goes out and does it again.

We wish Mr Townsend a full recovery. We wish his assailant nothing but bad luck in his attempts to evade justice.