A BOLTON man lost his eye and his livelihood as he protected a group of women in a nightclub.

John Rowley, aged 27, was attempting to break up a brawl in Manchester's Piccadilly 21 Club when a bottle smashed into his eye, splitting it into two.

A splinter of glass missed his brain by two millimetres, but left him without his left eye and the probability of having to spend the rest of his life on disability allowance.

He lost his job as a driver three days after the attack, struggled to cope with a false eye and suffered mental stress and a severe loss of co-ordination. But he has not received a penny in compensation from the club.

John, of High Street, Daubhill, said: "No-one from Piccadilly 21 has been in touch with me since the attack in August - not even to ask how I was.

"All correspondence has come through the solicitor and has ended with me receiving a letter yesterday from my barrister to say the club will not have to pay a penny compensation.

"I was devastated. It seems disgraceful that my life has been affected for ever and yet the club does not have to do anything to help." John's barrister says the club owner cannot be held liable even if security men "are pitifully inept and inadequate".

John said: "Women out on a hen night were being thrown around by this maniac. I never usually get involved or step in, but these were women and they were getting hurt.

"I asked the man to calm down and he eventually began to. By this time though there was a crowd around us and somebody threw the bottle, which I think was aimed at the madman, but it hit me."

"My eyelid and eye were split in two and a brain scan revealed it was two millimetres away from my brain. I still suffer from dizzy spells and have to go back next month for a second brain scan."

"I always thought the club was responsible for the people in it, but apparently due to the loophole in the law, they are not. "The barrister and Russell & Russell my solicitors, have been fantastic, but even though everyone accepts I have been the victim the law means there is nothing anyone can do."

John, who lives with his grandmother, says lives on little more than £40 a week. He is now awaiting on a claim to the Criminal Injuries Board.

No-one at the club was available to comment.

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