A thug who smashed a glass into a clubber's face knocking him unconscious has been jailed - almost four years after the attack.

Jerome Starkey delivered the blow to Ryan Feacey at The Ashford Club, situated in the town’s High Street, in December 2018.

The attack has left hotel boss Mr Feacey with depression and flashbacks. It also prompted him to move to Australia.

Starkey, from Ashford, admitted causing actual bodily harm earlier this year following roughly four years of delays in court proceedings.

The 30-year-old was jailed for two years at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday, where a judge heard police took 11 months to charge him.

Prosecutors said Starkey, who was with another man, “beckoned Mr Feacey over” in the smoking area, and then smashed the half-pint glass into his face.

Mr Feacey was unaware of the attack until he woke up behind the nightclub’s bar, with staff tending to his injuries, the court heard.

He suffered swelling to his head alongside multiple lacerations to the right side of his face, which required treatment with surgical glue at hospital.

Starkey, who was 26 at the time of the offence, told officers he acted in self-defence after Mr Feacey flashed a knife and made derogatory comments.

But the ordeal was caught on the nightspot’s CCTV, which was played in court, while a senior doorman told officers Starkey was the aggressor.

In a statement read out in court, Brett Downling-Jones said: “He, Mr Feacey was on my right side.

“Jerome the defendant was on my left side.

“I said, ‘what are you doing?’ and then suddenly he smashed a half pint glass into Mr Feacey’s face.

“The lad had slumped on the floor and appeared to be out cold.”

The court heard Starkey, a father-of-two, left the venue shortly after the attack.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Feacey said the incident had an “immense effect on him, including his ability to find work as hotel manager", prosecutor Darren Almeida told the court.

He added Mr Feacey battled issues with self-esteem and confidence, “still has flashbacks” four years later, and subsequently moved to Australia.

“The author of the pre-sentence report has little confidence you are truly at the stage where you can rehabilitate yourself...”

Starkey was charged with wounding but the authorities accepted a guilty plea to the lesser charge of causing actual bodily harm.

Representing Starkey, John FitzGerald, said it was a “loss of temper in a premises and there has been nothing of that nature ever since”.

He added Starkey has since matured, and though his previous relationship led to comparatively low-level domestic violence convictions, there had been no public violence.

Mr FitzGerald said Starkey, who has 12 previous convictions for 30 offences, had since moved to Scotland where his life was “going in all the right directions”.

Handing down a two-year sentence, Judge Simon Taylor KC told Starkey, formerly of Tufton Street, he had shown “limited insight into his offending”.

The judge added Starkey’s “real mitigation is the delay” in bringing the cases to court, adding: “The author of the pre-sentence report has little confidence you are truly at the stage where you can rehabilitate yourself.”