A bodybuilder, who used a Samurai sword to sever part of a man’s hand, has been jailed for four years.

Thug Darren Selby, who has previous convictions for violence, including robbery, was told he will also have to serve another year on licence when he is released.

Judge James O’Mahony said the injuries to victim Karl Lashley were “quite rightly described as devastating”.

“The complainant’s arm was nearly severed in two. That strike with the sword went through flesh and bone and his hand was hanging by a piece of skin!”

The violent incident happened in Charles Street, Herne Bay, in June last year during a row between the two men.

The judge added: “This was as bad an injury on a still living man that this court has seen in years and after the incident you ran away.”

A jury at Canterbury Crown Court acquitted Selby, 42,of no fixed address, of wounding with intent but convicted him of a lesser charge of unlawful wounding and possessing the sword illegally.

At an earlier hearing the judge said that it had become “fashionable” for people to own the large Samurai swords “but in the wrong hands they could be lethal.”

He added that had Mr Lashley, who is the son the son of Selby’s ex-lover, not received immediate medical help he could have bled to death.

Doctors at hospitals in Ashford and East Grinstead had battled for 17 hours to try to reconstruct the 27 year old roofer’s hand.

“He won’t ever again work in the trade in which he loved, “ the judge added.

During the trial the jury were shown photographs of the “unpleasant and gruesome” injury taken at the time.

Prosecutor Vivian Walters told how Mr Lashley shouted at Selby: "Look what you have done!" before collapsing in agony.

After hiding the weapon in a cellar, Selby then fled to London and was arrested two weeks later in Ashford where he was found hiding in a cupboard.

The judge told him he ruled that Selby was dangerous in the legal sense, adding: “You resort to violence all too easily when you could deal with matters in another way.”

He revealed that even when Selby was interviewed by a probation officer prior to sentence he began throwing furniture around the room!