by Keith Hunt

A golf-club-wielding thug who brutally attacked another man causing him head wounds has been jailed for eight years.

Brian Dunn launched the attack on Richard Palmer after bursting into a garage in Catlyn Close, East Malling, on a BMX bike.

The 35-year-old, of Howard Road, East Malling, denied wounding with intent and attempted robbery but was convicted on what a judge called “the clearest evidence”.

He also denied making a threat to kill Charlie Pearce and that charge was left on the court file.

The jury then heard that Dunn had 33 previous convictions for 105 offences, some for robbery and violence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Mr Palmer and friends were watching a film in the garage on November 4 last year when Dunn rode in.

He told the victim he was going to “jook” (stab) him up and demanded his money and phone.

He headbutted Mr Palmer, pushed his thumbs in his eyes and then struck him with the golf club. The victim was to describe it as like being hit by a brick.

Dunn warned he would return and slip his throat if contacted the police.

Mr Palmer needed stitches for a wound to his forehead and upper lip.

Mark Gardner, defending, submitted it was not a premeditated attack and that the weapon “came to hand” while there.

But Judge Andrew Patience QC replied: “He burst in shouting: 'Give us your money.’

"That is premeditated isn’t it? He wasn’t going in for a pleasant conversation was he?”

Mr Gardner said Dunn had managed to overcome heroin addiction by the age of 26 and was more recently a cannabis user. He then changed his pattern of offending, he added.

Judge Patience said it was of some significance that Dunn demanded Mr Palmer’s car keys.

“You proceeded outrageously to put your hands into his pocket,” he said. “In the course of the attack you hit him with a golf club, causing nasty injuries.”

The judge said it was of note that although Dunn had a bad record, he had no convictions for violence in the last 10 years.

But he added there had to be a substantial sentence to punish and act as a deterrence.