I’m scared to go out, says former soldier glassed at daughter’s birthday bash
AN ARMY veteran was glassed in the face on Christmas Eve during his daughter’s 18th birthday celebrations.
Chris Harrison, 50, who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, says he is too scared to leave his home since the attack.
He was attacked with a pint glass outside a bar in Sheffield city centre, leaving him needing stitches in seven gashes across his face.
Hospital staff told him after a four-hour operation he was lucky to keep his eyesight.
Chris, who served with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment for five years until 1994, said the psychological impact of the attack just after midnight has been “unbelievable”.
The single father said he feared he was going to die in the unprovoked assault, which has also left him in agonising pain.
Chris, from Sheffield, , whose son Daniel died earlier this year aged just 23, said: “It was so traumatic, I’m scared to go anywhere. I haven’t been out of my flat since it happened.
“The effect its had on me psychologically is unbelievable. “Looking at me, because I’m ex-Army, you’d think I could take it but I thought he was going to kill me.” Chris had just said goodbye to daughter Chloe in a nearby pub as she headed off to a club.
He had drunk five pints but says he was assaulted out of the blue as he waited for a taxi.
He said: “There was a man on the phone arguing with someone. He started shouting, ‘What are you looking at’ and then the next thing, he was calling me a racist.
“I did everything I could to diffuse the situation but he was looking for trouble. I told him I wasn’t a racist but he threw the glass in my face. I was shocked, dazed and confused.”
Chris added. “My top lip split completely. Christmas was horrible, I was in agony, I couldn’t eat and my face was in so much pain.
“Chloe was shocked, upset and distraught.”
South Yorkshire Police say they are still investigating.