Rugby player glassed bride-to-be in eye after she slapped him for squeezing her breast in pub

Victim left with permanently damaged sight

• League player's career in ruins after he is jailed for two years

A Rugby League player’s career lies in ruin after a judge jailed him for two years for glassing a young woman in the face just weeks before her wedding.

Belinda Kelly, 26, who has been left with permanently damaged eyesight, was on a night out with her fiancé and family when Super League player Greg Johnson, 21, who until today played for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, squeezed her breast as she made her way to the toilet. 

The mother-of-one, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was so incensed that she slapped him across the face.

Battered: Belinda Kelly has been left with partial sight in one eye after she was glassed in the face by Greg Johnson. The rugby player attacked her after she slapped him when he squeezed her breast in a Huddersfield bar

Aftermath:  Greg Johnson (left) was jailed when he appeared at Bradford Crown Court. Right, the sickening injuries suffered by his victim Belinda Kelly 

The 5ft 10in 15st winger, who played for Huddersfield Giants at the time and proclaimed himself to be the quickest player in Super League, responded by grabbing her fiancé’s heavy tumbler of brandy, throwing the contents away and smashing Mrs Kelly in the face with it.

Christine Egerton, for the prosecution, told the court how Mrs Kelly immediately fell to the floor in 'agonising pain' in Yates’ Wine Lodge, in Huddersfield, with blood pouring from her face during the attack on February 13.

She was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary where she had nine stitches to repair the damage. She had a slash from the bridge of her nose to her eye and her iris was torn apart.

Mrs Kelly now has no lens in her left eye and her eyesight will never recover. 

Her eyesight is hazy, her pupil permanently dilated, and she has a scar across her nose. She chose not to undergo an operation to mend her eyesight as there is a risk that she could go blind.

Three weeks after the attack, the accountant's secretary got married and had to walk down the aisle with a severely damaged eye - luckily her make-up artist mother was able to cover he remaining bruises. 

Brutal attack: Belinda Kelly was glassed at a Huddersfield bar, three weeks before her wedding

In sentencing Johnson at Bradford Crown Court today, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: 'The offence arises as a result of the response of Mrs Kelly’s great exception to being assaulted in a casual and  loutish fashion.

'You are a rugby player who clearly worked extremely hard to achieve such success.

'You are, in all respects, to be seen as a role model, but you appear, 
certainly from that night, to be ill-equipped to deal with the obligation impressed by society.

'You forgot you were subject to law and felt free to molest anyone who takes your fancy.

Convicted: Greg Johnson in action for his club Wakefield Wildcats

'I’m not here to deal with you as the minor celebrity you think you are but as a young man who has committed two offences in drink.'

Johnson was jailed for two years for the attack, with three months to run concurrent for the sexual assault. 

He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for seven years.

The player, who has three previous convictions for public order offences, pleaded guilty an an earlier hearing to the charges of grievous bodily harm and sexual assault.

Mrs Kelly, who has a 22-month-old daughter, Ava, was in court with her new husband, Chris Kelly, 26. 

She said: 'I’m pleased by the sentence. 

'No amount of jail would ever give me back my full sight but this way he has time to think about what he has done.

'If he was not jailed I don’t think he would have given a moment’s thought about what he has done to me.'

'With him being in the public eye and a rugby player, I was pleased the judge showed these people that they can’t get away with it. 

'Although it didn’t matter to me that he was a rugby player. I didn’t care who he was.'

Barrister Phillip Tully, defending Johnson, asked the judge if he would suspend the jail term. 

He said: 'He’s a young man of just 21 years of age who has a great deal to lose if he receives a custodial sentence. 

'He is a professional rugby player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and a young man highly thought of by his employers and the community.

'He has been offered a a new contract by the club if he keeps his liberty. He is a young man at the start of a promising career in rugby.'

But the judge failed to be impressed by his status and two references from the coach and chief executive of the club.

Mrs Kelly and her family left the court swiftly after the sentencing following abuse from members of the Johnson's family.