KFC staff refused to call for help as a patron was attacked and left lying on the ground with his eye spliced in half by a stranger who punched him with an unknown instrument.

These allegations were made by 27-year-old Idrin Izion Paynter, who is still grappling with the realisation that he has lost vision in his left eye as a result of the attack.

And Mr. Paynter said he intended to sue the company for their lack of action in ensuring customer safety.

Speaking from his hospital bed in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, yesterday, Mr. Paynter told The Royal Gazette about the harrowing ordeal last Friday afternoon which has left him blinded in one eye.

"My fiancee and I went to KFC after we had done some Christmas shopping, to get something to eat,'' he said.

"We were in the line when we heard a gentleman's voice loud and vulgar talking about how he's going to mash me up and this way and that because I'm an older guy.'' Mr. Paynter explained that the man directed his abuse directly at him because he had turned around to see what the commotion was and had made direct eye contact with him.

"I turned around and I saw him looking at me and that's when he just flared up and started talking about `yah you, yah you, yah older than me I'll mash you up this and that.

"I'm wondering where this here's coming from so I left the line and went to him and asked him what's his problem. Then he said he's going to get his big brother to mash me up so I offered him a phone to call his brother and I was really wondering what's wrong with this guy.

"I went back to the line, but he kept going on and on so I went back over to him and I saw him fidgeting in his pockets. I didn't know what he was up to.'' Mr. Paynter claimed the assailant then grabbed something from his pocket, held it in his fist and punched him in the eye.

"I don't know what he had grasped a hold of but whatever he struck me with it had to be an object of weight to split my eye in half and to crush the side just a little ways from my temple,'' he said.

"The object that struck me, it ripped into my eye and sliced it right in half like if you squeeze an orange and all the contents inside of it come out, all the stuff inside my eye was oozing out.

"They have been able to reconstruct it but they were not able to put it back together completely because so much of the inside tissue came out. So little was left in that the doctor has said when it heals it will shrivel and be smaller than my other eye.

"I may be able to see things like a white wall but I'm not going to be able to see 20/20 out of it. Right now when I take the bandage off all I see is complete black. I don't see anything out of it at all.'' KFC customer blinded in attack Mr. Paynter said he held KFC management mainly responsible for his permanent injury, claiming they did nothing to avert or stem the arguments, then refused to call for emergency help.

"There are witnesses there that even told the officers that they heard the people say that they can't make any phone calls, that they have to wait until the manager comes,'' Mr. Paynter said.

"One of the customers was actually screaming at the staff to call and they wouldn't so someone gave her a cell phone and she made the calls for help.'' "What kind of ignorance is this?'' Mr. Paynter asked. "When this gentleman was making a whole lot of noise in the establishment why did no one from management come out and say, `excuse me could you quiet down all your noise or could you stop using profanity, excuse me sir could you leave'? "When both of us engaged in a heated conversation why did no one still not come because it was louder then? Why did no one come out and say excuse me gentlemen, stop?'' Mr. Paynter backed his claim that the company was not concerned with customer safety by noting that all the surveillance cameras were devoted solely to monitoring actions around the cash registers.

"They have cameras in there but the cameras are only facing the cash registers,'' he said. "Police told me that they can't pick up this guy's identification from the surveillance cameras in there. So what's the use of having the cameras? "I've been advised by my lawyer to take legal action against KFC and that's what I plan to do.

"I feel that as a customer in their establishment they let me down. I should have been safe in their establishment and none of that was supposed to happen.

As if to add insult to injury, Mr. Paynter complained that no representative from KFC has called or visited him since he was admitted to KEMH.

"This manager, if he had a conscience to know that someone lost blood and lost their eye in his establishment, he wouldn't even have the decency to come down here and say good afternoon Mr. Paynter I am Mr. so and so. I was not in at the time but I heard what happened to you and I came to see how you're doing,'' Mr. Paynter said.

KFC managing director, Graham Redford, did not return phone calls yesterday.