A SADISTIC thug who left a man with horrific internal injuries after an attack with a dumbbell bar has been jailed indefinitely.

Robert Fraiser, 41, battered 38-year-old Norman Reid around the head during the vicious attack in Colchester.

The Glaswegian alcoholic also repeatedly stabbed Mr Reid in both legs before dragging his body out into the street, in Tufnell Way.

Mr Reid was left with a life-threatening brain haemorrhage, fractured nose and eyesocket, and a partly severed ear.

Fraiser also inserted the dumbbell up his bottom. As a result, Mr Reid has to use a colostomy bag because the bar punctured his bladder, prostate and abdominal wall.

Fraiser was charged with attempted murder, but admitted a lesser charge of wounding with intent.

Judge Michael Mettyear sentenced him on Friday at the Old Bailey to a minimum of five years behind bars before being considered for parole.

The judge said: “Mr Reid certainly did not deserve the quite appalling assault you subjected him to.

“It was wholly gratuitous and utterly sadistic. The results were life-threatening and devastating.

“Had it not been for the surgeons, Mr Reid would have died and you would stand convicted of murder. You are capable of sinking to the most depraved behaviour.”

The court heard Fraiser and Mr Reid were alcoholics and had slept rough together in the past.

By June 2009, Fraiser was living at a house in Tufnell Way, Colchester, with his girlfriend, Mallisa Cook.

The pair invited Mr Reid to stay with them and on June 16 they spent time drinking in the park. Police were called to the house at 11pm and 1am the next morning after reports of disturbances.

At 5am, paramedics were called to find Mr Reid lying unconscious outside the front door with his trousers round his ankles.

Andrew Jackson, prosecuting, said: “There was a great deal of blood coming from the front door. He had wounds to the head, exposed scalp and copious bleeding from the anal area.”

Fraiser told police Mr Reid had been attacked by “people in the flats over there”.

He added: “Why would I beat him up? All this blood is from where I tried to help him. He won’t press charges anyway, will he?”

Mr Reid was taken to hospital with fractures to his left eyesocket and sinuses, at least ten cuts to his scalp and a partial severing of his right ear.

Mr Jackson said: “It was a brutal, sustained assault on a drunk, unarmed man.

“We don’t know why it took place, but it was designed to inflict humiliating and lasting injuries.”

Fraiser has a long list of previous convictions, including theft and assault in Scotland, between 1988 and 1995, possession of a lockknife in Bristol in 2000, and battery in Essex in 2007.

He was convicted of supplying heroin and selling or transferring a revolver in 2007.

Fraiser, of New Town Road, Colchester, showed no reaction as he was led from court to the cells.