THE picture of the man who “battered” his long-term friend on his birthday has been released by police.

Anthony James Rogers, 32, of Mansfield Road, Poole, was sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment for inflicted grievous bodily harm on friend James Clarke.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage after he threw a fire extinguisher through a car window.

Judge Robert Pawson told the defendant at Bournemouth Crown Court: “You set about Mr Clarke, a longstanding friend of yours, with your fists and over the course of several minutes you battered him.

“You repeatedly hit him on the floor. The impact on the victim has been quite substantial, he feels overwhelmed by what’s happened to him.

“He has struggled ever since from permanent disfigurement, his vision is getting worse, and he needs further surgery.

“I have got no doubt whatsoever that this was a prolonged attack, it went on over several minutes with multiple blows to his head.

“He was very vulnerable, he was lying on the ground, drunk and he suffers from Asperger’s.”

A restraining order was also put in place prohibiting Rogers from contacting Mr Clarke for ten years.