No bail for broken bottle accused

An 18-year-old man has appeared in the High Court in Belfast charged with stabbing his girlfriend's grandfather in the eye with a broken bottle.

The victim has lost his sight in the injured eye.

Hugh McCabe, of Derryveagh Drive in Belfast, is also accused of assaulting a woman during a row in the New Lodge area of the city last month.

He claimed he was acting in self defence and denies causing the eye injury. Bail was refused.

Jabbed

The bail application was dismissed after a Crown lawyer claimed Mr McCabe carried out the assault during an argument outside the house.

The lawyer said it was alleged that McCabe smashed a bottle and jabbed it into the older man's face.

"It's been confirmed this morning that he has in fact lost the sight in the injured eye," she told the court.

The other charges against Mr McCabe relate to allegations that he threw a brick through a window of the house and then punched the blinded man's partner in the eye and stomach.