Amy Winehouse's husband - who tried to cover up a vicious attack on a publican - has lost an appeal against his sentence.

The challenge by Blake Fielder-Civil, who was jailed for 27 months in July, was being heard by two judges in the Court of Appeal in London.

Mr Justice Pitchford, dismissing the appeal, expressed the court's encouragement to Fielder-Civil to continue the progress he has made since his release.

It was only if "these attempts are successful that he has a worthwhile future", added the judge.

Fielder-Civil, who was present in court, said after the hearing: "I am disappointed but not really surprised."

The 26-year-old, who was due to be released early in December because of time already spent on remand, was freed from prison earlier this month.

In the original trial, Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London heard that Fielder-Civil, joined in a "vicious and one-sided" assault on James King while high on cocaine and alcohol.

The victim was so badly beaten that he needed metal plates fitted to his face.

Fielder-Civil and his friend Michael Brown, who launched the attack in June 2006, tried to scupper the trial with a £200,000 pay-off to Mr King, the landlord of a pub in Hoxton, east London.

The plot was exposed when two middlemen approached a national newspaper.

Fielder-Civil, of Camden, north London and Brown, of Carshalton, Surrey, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. Brown was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Sentencing Fielder-Civil to 27 months, Judge David Radford said he had behaved in a "gratuitous, cowardly and disgraceful way" by kicking Mr King, 36, when he was lying prone.

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