Jamie and Elaina O'Brien have been jailed for a total of seven years

by Paul Hooper

Bitter rivalry between two families spilled out onto the streets of Ramsgate - just hours after a funeral.

It ended with FIVE revellers injured in an attack outside The Jazz Room in July last year and one man accused of treating his victims like "rag dolls".

One woman was hit with a shoe and another kicked unconscious during the fracas, which began because of a family dispute.

And it ended with a brother and sister being given jail sentences totaling seven years for the violent punch-up.

Donna East, prosecuting, told Canterbury Crown Court there had been a feud between the O'Briens and the Gowtons.

She said Ms Gowton's husband had become "involved" with the mother of Elaina and Jamie O'Brien - and that had led to name-calling in the street.

Brother and sister Elaina and Jamie - who both had previous convictions and admitted being in breach of suspended sentences - were both jailed after admitting the assaults.

Elaina, 22, of Arundel Road, Cliff's End, Ramsgate, pleaded guilty to two assaults on Tracy Gowton and Anouska Vockings and was jailed for two years.

Scaffolder Jamie, 26, of Market Street, Margate, admitted charges of assaults by beating on Ms Vockings, Peter Allen, Karen Oram and Tracey Silver. He was given a five-year extended sentence, which includes a four-year jail term.

Judge Adele Williams told them: "You had both been to a funeral and drinking all day. You were both drunk and a most unpleasant incident then took place in the streets in Ramsgate."

The incident was captured on CCTV and played to the court, which shown Elaina punching and kicking Ms Gowton.

The judge said the victim had "extremely unpleasant" injuries to her face, neck, cheek, eyebrows, nose, ear, hands and arms, a black eye and a chipped tooth.

The victim fell to the ground where she struck her head before being kicked until she lost consciousness - and still has "ongoing" problems with her injuries, including suffering panic attacks and she is unable to hold her grandchild.

Elaina and her brother then turned on Ms Vockings - jointly beating her as she lay on the ground in a sustained attack, the court heard.

Four other people were then attacked during the bust-up that had started because of bad feeling between the two families.

The prosecutor told how Tracy had been to The Jazz Room bar, in Harbour Parade, Ramsgate, and a fight broke out.

"you had both been to a funeral and drinking all day. you were both drunk and a most unpleasant incident then took place in the streets in ramsgate…” – judge adele williams

Philip Rowley, defending father-of-one Jamie, said he had attended a funeral in Margate before moving onto the wake. The group then travelled to Ramsgate "where the drinking continued".

He said: "The initial incident had involved Tracy Gowton and his brother, Seamus, and then his sister. Through a thoroughly misguided sense of sibling loyalty he became involved."

Defence barrister Oliver Kirk said hairdresser Elaina "feels very strongly that it was her fault that this incident occurred and it was her fault that her brother became involved.

"She had been to the funeral, had gone home to change and had not gone out looking trouble... but trouble she found.

"She came across Ms Gowton and there was some name-calling about her mother.

"But she accepts that she reacted entirely inappropriately to what was only mild provocation - this happened because of her own drunken behaviour."