A sport-loving pensioner was left half-blinded after being punched by a passenger whose girlfriend became upset by his conversation overheard on a train.

Cricket fan Charles Bonello, 69, told the Standard he had been left so terrified by the attack he was now considering leaving the country.

The retired construction director was travelling home after a day watching his beloved Surrey at the Oval last July when he began chatting with the man sitting next to him.

He told the Standard: “The conversation went on to Wimbledon and how I thought possibly women were overpaid.”

Mr Bonello said that a woman moved down the carriage to sit opposite him, then shouted: “I’m a woman, what’s your point?”

She nodded towards her partner Jonathan Dalton, 27, who came across and punched Mr Bonello so hard in the face he was left needing 12 stitches, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

He has since lost 60per cent of the vision in his right eye.

The couple were seen laughing on CCTV before disappearing down the train and jumping off as it pulled into Deptford station, jurors were told.

They called for a taxi and fled but a witness who had followed them took down the vehicle registration for the police.

Dalton, a council planning officer, has been jailed for two years after admitting a single charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

Mr Bonello, who lives alone in Plumstead, south-east London, said: “I said the conversation is between me and this gentleman and we don’t mean to be offensive.

“I used no foul language. I didn’t think he would be anywhere near as aggressive as he was. I was hit so hard my head hit the back of the seat. I was dazed.

“The guy is 27 years of age, he’s got his life ahead of him and he wants to injure someone and laugh about it.

“Eyesight is one of the most valuable possessions a person can have – especially when I play pool and snooker.

“I’m very sporty, I’ve done sea fishing, played snooker with Steve Davis, taken [former West Ham manager] Billy Bonds on the back of my scooter.

“I’ve managed to go through all my life never getting into trouble but it happens at 69 years of age when I’m going home after an afternoon of cricket.

“I would like to write to him, not in a bombastic way, just to say ‘don’t be so silly next time, look where this has got you’.

“In a way I feel like I have already forgiven him. He suffers and he’s put it on himself.

“I could have lost my eye but this young man has lost everything.”

Mr Bonello has since resigned his membership at Surrey County Cricket Club and fears going out alone.

He said: “To be honest it’s all been too much. I’m 70 this year – I don’t know what the world is coming to. Crimes like this shouldn’t happen and now I’m thinking of moving abroad.”

Passing sentence Judge Henry Blacksell QC told Dalton: “You decided to change somebody’s life forever, that person having lived through life a lot longer than you have now faces the remainder of their life with diminished sight in one eye.

“You try and run away from him, having given him an earful, having just smashed is face in.”

Dalton, of Belvedere, Kent, admitted causing grievous bodily harm. Mr Bonello is now considering seeking compensation.