A TEENAGER was glassed in the face during a brawl in a seafront casino.

The violence erupted at the Genting Club, in Western Esplanade, where the victim was brutally attacked with a pint glass.

Ben Garrett, 19, had to have stitches around his mouth and to the bridge of his nose, after glass shattered in his face.

He also had a chunk gouged out of his skin by his ear, which surgeons were unable to stitch back together.

He said: “It’s hard for me to walk outside because people are looking at me. I look like Frankenstein. “

Some of the cuts are so close to my eyes it could have been catastrophic and I think the lowlife that did it needs to be caught. It’s a gutless thing to do.”

Mr Garrett, who lives in Corringham, had been drinking at the bar with one of his friends when a group approached looking for trouble.

Police want to speak to witnesses who may have seen the attack in the bar area at about 2.30am on Friday.

Det Con Dangerfield said “There was a female who was with the suspect’s group that we are keen to speak to because we think she came back to check on the welfare of the man that had been glassed.”

The suspect was white, slim man aged 20 to in his 30s. He had short dark hair and was wearing a grey hoody and jeans. He also had an injury to his right hand, likely to be from the broken glass.

Anyone with any information contact Det Con Dangerfield at Southend CID on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.