A MAN who attacked a 17-year-old girl after a heavy drinking session was jailed for four months by a district judge who described his behaviour as "appalling."

Paul Firth, sitting at Blackburn magistrates, said Mark Anthony Alberts, who was bitten by the girl in her frantic efforts to escape, had behaved in such a way that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.

And when Alberts protested that he would lose his job if he was sent to prison Mr Firth responded: "Your job, your loss, your concerns matter less to me than what you did to this young girl, I make no bones about that."

Alberts, 20, of Reading Close, Blackburn, had initially pleaded not guilty to assault but had changed his plea on the day of trial after his victim and other witnesses had attended court.

There had been an agreed basis of his guilty plea which accepted that he had slapped the girl and not punched her, and that he did not try and drag her down an alleyway.

But Mr Firth said that even accepting those points the offence was still serious.

The girl was attacked in Accrington Road, Blackburn, at 8.30 pm on July 18. Mr Firth said it was accepted that Alberts had grabbed the girl and pulled her hair.