An enraged father who launched a vicious attack on a neighbour - breaking three bones in his face - has been jailed for seven years.

Ben Molloy fractured Craig Davis' eye socket, nose and cheek in the assault outside their Rochester homes.

Molloy's partner Julie Walton, who joined in the beating, kicking the victim, was saved from "richly deserved" immediate prison by their children.

A judge told her he was being "merciful and lenient" in sentencing her to 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years.

Molloy, 30, and 39-year-old Walton, now of Manor Road, Swanscombe, denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Molloy was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and Walton of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Maidstone Crown Court heard there had been ongoing disputes involving "cross words" between the two families in Thomas Harris Close.

It came to a head on the afternoon of August 12 last year when Mr Davis, his partner and their children returned home and Molloy approached and said he wanted to talk to him about an incident in June.

Prosecutor Matthew Turner said Mr Davis replied: "Why don't you get on with your afternoon and I will get on with mine?"

Molloy responded: "Don't tell me what to do." He then struck the victim on the nose. He hit him again "square on the chin", knocking him to the ground.

"Mr Molloy got on top of him and continued to hit him eight or nine times," said Mr Turner. "At that point Julie Walton came running over. She kicked Mr Davis in the face.

"The two of them were stamping on him three or four times before another neighbour came over and pulled them off."

Mr Davis, whose family has also since moved, said he went to the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead the next day and a metal plate was inserted in his face.

Judge Michael Carroll told Molloy: "You launched an unprovoked attack on that man and caused him life-changing injuries."

“It was a sustained and repeated assault. You held him and punched him again and again. You were under the influence of alcohol" - Judge Michael Carroll

He said of Walton: “I may be falling into error by having more regard to the children than I do have here. Prison is merited but I am going to suspend it.”

The judge told Walton: "You joined in once your partner had launched his attack upon that innocent person who had done nothing on the day whatever to provoke the attack.

"You had been drinking. These were serious injuries. There is lower culpability because there is a lack of premeditation. It was in the presence of the victim’s partner and children."

The judge said the major mitigating factor for Walton was the fact she was the primary carer for their children.

"You richly deserve a custodial sentence apart from that, but that is the fact that has decided me on the path, perhaps a mercifully and leniently, not to send you to prison today," he added.

Judge Carroll told Molloy he was not qualified to judge who was in the right and who was in the wrong as far as the dispute was concerned.

He said of the victim: "Not only did he require surgery at the time, he has required it since. I haven’t the slightest doubt in my mind these are serious injuries in the context of this offence.

"It was a sustained and repeated assault. You held him and punched him again and again. You were under the influence of alcohol.

"You don't regard yourself as responsible for what happened and, therefore, I can find no evidence of remorse."