Glassing victim plans to return to modelling

A MODEL scarred for life by a glass attack to the face is planning to return to the spotlight, it was reported today.

Joanne Minto, 20, feared she would have to give up a promising career in the modelling industry after her face was cut to shreds and she was blinded in one eye in a drunken attack.

Miss Minto, who modelled for fashion chain Diesel, quit her dream job and spent a year working in an office after the attack destroyed her confidence.

Now the determined Edinburgh model has said she is looking forward to returning to the job she loves in front of the camera.

She said: "It's been a bad year but I want to get back out there."

Alex Varndell, then 20, threw a glass into Miss Minto's face at a funeral wake in East Lothian in February last year.

He had thrown it at a man, but it missed him and it shattered in Miss Minto's face instead. She needed 35 stitches to her wounds and lost the sight in her left eye.

Varndell, of Ormiston, East Lothian, admitted culpable and reckless conduct and was jailed for two years in September last year.

Miss Minto has said she may be able to forgive Varndell, who is now out of jail, and says she is "ready to move on", it was reported today.