On September 9th, 2016, 18-year-old Luke Byrne rammed a pint glass into the face of street magician, Mark Beltran, blinding him in one eye. Byrne and a gang of underage thugs assaulted Beltran after he prevented one of the teen’s underage associates from stealing his amplifier earlier in the day. Byrne received a nine-year sentence for the attack, as well as a further five years for robbing nine women at knife point over a two-year period. The last four-and-a-half years of the sentence were suspended. Byrne is now appealing the nine year sentence, arguing that it is too “severe.”

Talking to The Irish Sun from his home in the Philippines, Beltran pledged to oppose the appeal.

“If I have to go back to Ireland and remind the judges of the trauma I have endured, I will,” he said. “I had a feeling this would happen.”

“I will now hope and pray that he doesn’t get anything reduced from his sentence because this would just send out the wrong message,” he continued. “He left me with life-changing injuries so he deserved the sentence he received for the level of violence he used.”

“Nine years for what he did to me is OK at best, but five years and some suspended sentence isn’t enough for what he did to those women. I will fight this appeal to ensure that I and all the other ­victims he terrorised receive the justice they deserve.”

Despite his injury, Magic Mark Beltran is still blowing minds on streets all over the world. As you can see in the video below: