The son of Gills chairman Paul Scally has been locked up for two years for breaking a 15-year-old boy’s jaw.

Passing a two-year detention and training order in a young offenders’ institution Judge Andrew Patience QC branded 17-year-old Max Scally “a thug and a coward.”

Maidstone Crown Court heard on Monday that Scally punched his victim in the face and then stamped on him during a party to celebrate the end of school in July 2007.

The victim, now aged 17 and who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was left needing surgery to insert two metal plates into his jaw, which was broken in two places.

Scally was 16 at the time of the attack.

Scally, from Farningham, was convicted by a jury of causing grievous bodily harm. The teenager, who turns 18 this Thursday, was cleared at his trial in December of a more serious charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Paul Scally was at court for much of his son’s trial, as well as the sentencing hearing.

Judge Patience told Scally: “I have no doubt that you hit him first from behind and then you stamped on his face. Whether or not the punch or the stamp broke his jaw I cannot say but I am sure that one of them did.

“No doubt those actions were impulsive and of an immature 16-year-old who had not thought out the consequences of his actions and did not intend their consequences.”

The sentence was met with gasps from the public gallery and someone was heard to comment: “It’s a joke.”

Following an application from representatives of the Kent Messenger Group, the judge lifted a section 39 order banning the identification of Scally.

“It is essential that a repeated message reaches the public that punishment has been and will be meted out to the perpetrators of violence of this kind,” explained Judge Patience.

During the trial the court heard there had been trouble between the pair two months before the attack because the victim was dating a former girlfriend of Scally’s.

The victim told the court he was “quite nervous” of Scally after the earlier altercation. There were about 30 to 40 people at the end-of-year party, both in the house and garden and drinking alcohol.

The boy said he had been there for an hour and was with his friends at the bottom of the garden when Scally approached him.

They started to walk towards the house but the court heard they never reached the top of the garden.

He told the jury he could not remember any more of what happened, and his next recollection was waking up in hospital with a broken jaw.

The jury also heard that just a week before the trial started Scally and his father met with the victim and a mutual friend at a roadside cafe in Wrotham.

It was a pre-arranged meeting and the victim told the court he wanted to know how Scally felt following the assault.

“Everything that happened was quite traumatic and I hadn’t spoken to him,” he said. But he added that he was not the instigator of the meeting.

Once at the cafe,he said, Scally apologised to him.

Scally was remanded in custody at the end of his trial. However, his 42 days already served will not count towards the detention and training order.

Janette Hayne, defending, said Scally had acted “in a moment of madness” and urged the court to impose a non-custodial sentence.

“This is not a boy who would ever have imagined he was going to find himself in a custodial setting,” she added. He is hard-working, polite, has humility, is remorseful and deserves a chance.”