A MAN slashed his lover's face then laughed down the phone at his victim, a court heard.

Teesside Crown Court was told that the injured man suffered a 15cm wound and needed 20 stitches after the attack.

Paul Reid, prosecuting, said Qasim Aksar, 25, of Roscoe Road, Billingham, and the victim had been “intimate” on October 25 last year.

Aksar left the victim's house in Stockton before returning.

The men then spent several hours playing cards and drinking lager.

A dispute broke out and Aksar overturned the card table.

As the victim showed him to the door, the defendant put his hand in his pocket and swung at his lover's face.

Although the victim did not see a knife, blood began gushing from a large wound.

The man called police and went to hospital.

At about 3am Aksar called the man's mobile and laughed down the phone at him, asking: “How is your face?”

When he was later arrested, the defendant claimed the other man had started a fight and said he had not meant to injure him.

The court heard the victim had been left with a large scar and was upset and embarrassed about the incident.

Nick Peacock, mitigating, said his client had shown genuine remorse, adding: “You are dealing with a man with no particular background of serious violence.

“Any custodial sentence is going to hurt.”

Mr Peacock said his client denied ever having an intimate relationship with the victim.

Aksar pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

Jailing him for five years and ten months, Judge Howard Crowson said if the weapon had not been a knife, it had been sharp and had caused his victim a serious injury.

“You and the victim had been friends for many years. You had spent an evening together but when he held the door for you to leave you swung at him.

“You called him after the event mocking the injury.”

Aksar was issued with an indefinite restraining order to stop him contacting the victim.