THE victim of a brutal assault which left him half blind and scarred for life said he was “devastated” to discover that the man behind it was his former friend.

Michael Brown, 53, lost the sight in one eye, his sense of smell and has been unable to work since the incident last July.

The manager of the Yorkway Motel, Pocklington, was lured out of his hotel and hit in the face with a baseball bat by a “hired thug”, Sean Craib, 21.

Craib had been hired to hurt Mr Brown by breaking one of his arms and legs by Alan Lumley, 56, who believed Mr Brown had cost him around £60,000 by pulling out of an arrangement to buy the motel from him. Lumley, Craib, and a third man who acted as a getaway driver are now starting a total of 17 years in prison for their part in the attack.

Meanwhile, Mr Brown is preparing for a gruelling 12-hour operation, which is likely to involve the removal of his right eye and part of his nose.

Mr Brown said: “The sentence passed today has given me no pleasure whatsoever, just immense disappointment in a man I used to call a friend. “I hope that all three that were present today realise the distress they have caused to so many individuals.

“I have still got major surgery in the next two or three weeks to remove and replace plates to the face and skull.

“They are probably going to remove my right eye and replace it with an artificial eye.

“They are going to replace the right side of my nose because I cannot breathe through my nose. They are going to take the plates out of both my eye sockets and replace them with bone taken from my hip. Losing my sense of smell affects 40 per cent of taste.

“Whereas I used to enjoy going out for meals, now everything tastes the same.”

Mr Brown said that since the attack his wife, Julia, 47, who is joint manager at the Yorkway Motel, had cared for him and the pair had had to take on an extra member of staff to cope with the workload. But he said he had become determined to continue his life and had been extremely moved by the steady flow of well-wishers to the Yorkway Motel, who had read reports of the attack.

He said although the perpetrators had harmed him, he and his wife would not allow the attack to affect their way of life.

“I’m strong enough to think positively about the future, I won’t allow them to turn my life into disarray. It’s totally changed my outlook on life. Coming so close to death changes your priorities.

“Now I focus on the important things in life.”