Ex-city player jailed for attack...

[dutchman]

Former Bristol Rovers midfielder and Coventry City player David Pipe has been jailed for 38 months for fracturing the skull of another man in an unprovoked attack in Bristol.

Pipe, 26, hit Rhys Morris over the head with a wine bottle outside a nightclub in Park Street in September 2009.

Mr Morris, 29, was left with a four-inch hole in his skull and needed emergency surgery.

Pipe had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Jailing Pipe at Bristol Crown Court, Judge Mark Horton called the player a "talented man with too much time and too much money''.

He added: ''A tragedy would be too small a word to describe the tale which has led us to this courtroom."

Metal plates

The former Welsh under-21 international, who has also played for Coventry City, was released by Rovers at the end of last season and is currently without a club.

The court heard that Pipe had been drinking heavily at Antix nightclub with friends before the attack.

He had become involved in a dispute over a woman and once outside the club he hit Mr Morris with the bottle.

The court heard that Mr Morris, who needed metal plates inserted into his head after the attack, was an "entirely innocent" bystander.

Pipe, who was identified by CCTV, told police that he had no memory of the event.

He had made 89 appearances for the Pirates after signing from Notts County in 2007.