A takeaway shop boss, scarred for life by a firebomber, has told how his life had been ruined.

Naser Smailey, 38, said he had been given a life sentence, while his attacker, Steven Bell, had been given seven years.

Bell, 31, of Vine Terrace West, Thornton, Bradford, was jailed last Friday after pleading guilty to damaging property with intent to endanger life.

He hurled a Molotov cocktail into the Oasis takeaway restaurant, in Morley Street, Bradford city centre, in a revenge attack after he and a friend left without paying.

Bradford Crown Court heard he was drunk and angry after his friend was beaten up by men who pursued him from the Oasis.

Mr Smailey, the manager, and two of his friends, who were visiting the takeaway, were all permanently scarred when the lighted bomb, made from a Coca Cola bottle filled with petrol, spilled its blazing contents over them.

Amir Bahram now suffered mental health problems and had given up his studies. Morteza Malekani suffered nightmares and no longer went out.

Mr Smailey, who last week bravely returned for the first time to help out at Oasis, told how he was “burning like in hell” when Bell struck.

He said: “Everywhere was on fire, my hands, my face, my neck – I was in hell, a real hell.

“I was tearing off the burning skin from my left arm and hand and my face with my other hand. I couldn’t believe what was happening.”

Mr Smailey said he had come to the UK from Iran many years ago to work, and had always worked hard, but Bell had now ruined his life.

He said: “I can’t believe how he has damaged my life. I have lost everything. I am scarred for life. I have lost my house and my business plans because of this. I am scared now if I go out. I am looking around all the time, expecting that fire is going to come from somewhere.

“I feel guilty about what has happened to my friends and the effect it has had on them. If they hadn’t have come to see me, it wouldn’t have happened to them.”

Mr Smailey said he could not afford to have the plastic surgery and laser treatment on his scarring and felt he would now never marry.

“I was going to be married before this happened. My family in Iran were choosing a girl for me, but how can I marry anyone looking like this? I feel ashamed.”

He added: “I think about this man every five or ten minutes of my life – that’s how often I have to scratch the itching scars on my arm.

“I don’t think seven years is a long enough sentence. He could have killed us. I have got a life sentence, how can I build my life again after this?”