A “pack of jackals” who repeatedly knifed a stranger in the face as his terrified girlfriend was forced to watch have been jailed.

Alfie Scott, 33, and Lewis Jones, 27, forced Jack Bardrick into a pub doorway in Whitstable High Street before setting upon him with a blade.

Their co-defendant Shannon Cook, 26, grabbed hold of Mr Bardrick’s partner Georgina McKinnon as she begged for the gang to stop.

The trio denied wounding Mr Bardrick after rounding on him outside the Pearsons Arms in Horsebridge Road during a night out.

But a jury threw out their lies and convicted them of the harrowing attack following a trial at Canterbury Crown Court in November last year.

Most of the group were dining at a JD Wetherspoon pub in the city centre when the verdicts were delivered.

Jurors were told Cook was alone shortly after midnight in Horsebridge Road when she made pointed remarks towards Mr Bardrick’s group, sparking a row.

During the altercation, Cook phoned then-boyfriend Jones, falsely claiming she had been assaulted.

Moments later, Jones, his cousin Bradley Jones and Scott arrived in a Land Rover before the situation turned sinister, the prosecution said.

Jones ran towards Mr Bardrick, lashing out with punches and kicks which caused him to fall into the pub doorway as Scott bundled in afterwards.

CCTV played during the trial showed Cook appearing to restrain Mr Bardrick’s partner Georgina McKinnon, who begged for the group to stop.

When Scott and Lewis Jones emerged from the alcove seconds later Mr Bardrick was soaked in blood with deep gashes to his face and two puncture wounds to his back, jurors heard last year.

Mr Bardrick told the court on Friday in a victim impact statement he could not eat solid food for a week after the attack.

“Every time I look in the mirror I feel sad knowing these scars are going to be permanent,” he continued.

His girlfriend added she felt “completely broken” after the ordeal, and still lays up at night “playing the attack in my head again and again”.

During the trial, Lewis and Scott blamed each other for wounding Mr Bardrick in the joint attack which unfolded shortly after midnight on May 14.

But jurors took 2 hours and 55 minutes to deliver unanimous verdicts.

Judge Mark Weekes called their actions “a dreadful wounding” where Mr Bardrick was set upon “like a pack of jackals” during the sentencing hearing.

The judge added he was confident it was Scott who wielded the blade on that fateful night.

Scott, of Stodmarsh Road, Fordwich, was handed 13 years in prison after being deemed dangerous.

“Every time I look in the mirror I feel sad knowing these scars are going to be permanent...”

The sentence also includes a separate conviction for arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered.

The court heard Scott broke into his partner's property and set the house alight shortly after attacking Mr Bardrick.

Scott, who pleaded guilty to the arson charge, will serve two thirds of his sentence before being considered for parole and a further three on extended licence.

His barrister Abigail Penny argued he was recently diagnosed with adult ADHD and was suffering a “mental breakdown” at the time of both offences.

Jones, previously of Brook Road, Swalecliffe, and of good character, was jailed for eight years and six months.

Ben Irwin, mitigating for Jones, said he expressed “genuine remorse” and “simply cannot come to terms with what happened that night”.

Two dock officers could be seen sitting between the pair on Friday, who were both convicted of wounding with intent.

Cook, previously of Brook Road and of good character, was handed two years six months after being acquitted of wounding with intent but found guilty of unlawful wounding, a lesser charge.

She was acquitted of one count of common assault having pleaded guilty to a separate count of the same charge before trial.

Phil Rowley, mitigating, said Cook suffers from unstable emotional personality disorder and claims “the presence of the weapon was not foreseen by (her)”.

Bradley Jones, 25, of Folkestone Road, Dover, was acquitted of wounding with intent following the trial last year.

After the sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Emma Wheeler said: “This was a completely unprovoked attack on an innocent group of people, leaving them with not only physical scars, but mental ones too.

“The victims involved will have to remember this awful assault for the rest of their lives. I hope that these prison sentences will at least provide some reassurance to the victims and the public that justice has been served.”