A DRUNKEN thug who caused a father brain damage in a vicious and unprovoked baseball bat attack has been jailed for seven years.

Richard Jones was told by a judge that the assault was a deliberate act and not a case of self-defence that had gone wrong.

Maidstone Crown Court heard last month how a minor road rage incident led to Jones battering Ian Sutherland around the head with the weapon and kicking him as he lay defenceless on the ground.

Shocked AA patrolman Robert Lacey was forced to intervene as he witnessed the unprovoked assault. “He just came up behind him and whacked him from the side,” he said. “He fell to his knees. He kicked him in the head. It was like kicking a football.”

Mr Lacey said Jones, 30, then turned on him during the incident in Five Oak Green, near Tonbridge, on December 21 last year.

Mr Sutherland’s car had broken down near Jones’s home in Colts Hill Place, Five oak Green. He left the car there and asked his friend Robert Cant to pick him up.

The next day Mr Cant drove Mr Sutherland back to his car to meet the AA mechanic there. On the way, a scooter being ridden by without lights by Jones almost collided with Mr Cant’s car.

While at the scene of the breakdown, Jones arrived and Mr Cant told him: “You should be more careful. I could have killed you.”

Soon afterwards Jones started kicking Mr Cant’s car, causing damage. Mr Sutherland went over to stop him and was punched by Jones.

Jones went to his nearby home in Colts Hill Place, returned with the bat and struck Mr Sutherland on the side of the head.

Don Ramble, prosecuting, said Jones kicked the victim while on the ground and was about to stamp on his head when others intervened and wrestled him to the ground.

Mr Sutherland suffered a fractured skull, brain damage and a perforated eardrum. He now has difficulty with his memory and formulating words.

Mr Sutherland, a night shift manager, said in evidence that he suffered two fractures of the skull, adding: “There was bleeding coming from my left ear. The whole of the left side of the skull had dropped. My left ear had perforated. I was unable to talk.”

Jones denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm. He admitted causing criminal damage to the car.

After he was convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent, jurors heard about his long list of previous convictions for offences including grievous bodily harm, threatening behaviour, assault on police, false imprisonment and drug offences.

Dominic Webber, defending, submitted that Jones, described as a traveller, appeared for sentence that his client could be given around four years and an extended sentence to protect the public in future.

But Judge David Caddick said he was not going to go down the road of passing a fairly low sentence because it was wholly inadequate.

Jones, he said, had “gone berserk” after Mr Cant spoke to him about his driving. The attack on Mr Sutherland was deliberate and intentional.

“The effect on Mr Sutherland can only be described as catastrophic,” he said. “In the long term, he is still suffering from memory loss and difficulty in putting words together, as was clearly demonstrated when he bravely gave evidence at the trial.”

The victim watched from the public gallery as the judge told Jones: “I am going to pass a commensurate sentence and that sentence is seven years.”

He added that he was unable to order compensation but Mr Sutherland would be informed of his right to apply to the Criminal Injuries Board.