A thug with previous convictions for serious violence has been jailed for 15 months for wounding a friend.

Darren Selwood thrust a steak knife into Patrick Boylan’s stomach in an unprovoked attack at a party.

He was originally charged with wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, but his guilty plea to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding was accepted on the basis he acted recklessly.

Selwood, of Edna Road, Maidstone, had previously been jailed for five-and-a-half years for causing grievous bodily harm with intent, in which his victim suffered brain damage, and three years for inflicting grievous bodily harm.

In the latest case the two men were at a party in Turner Road, Tonbridge, on July 14 this year.

At one point Selwood punched Mr Boylan in the ribs - said to be "messing about between friends".

Mr Boylan later went into the kitchen where Selwood, 34, was eating steak.

Prosecutor Kieran Brand said the victim said words to the effect of “Give us a bit of steak”.

Selwood replied “No, but you can have this instead”, and stabbed him in the abdomen.

After Selwood removed the knife, Mr Boylan told him: “You are a ------- mug.” Others in the kitchen panicked and called an ambulance.

Police officers arrived to find the victim in the street clutching his abdomen. He was told to lie down and he passed out before the ambulance arrived.

He was taken to Pembury Hospital, where his blood pressure dropped.

A CT scan showed he had bleeding in his abdominal cavity. He needed surgery and was detained for three days.

But he refused to co-operate with police and said he did not want to press charges.

Selwood contacted his ex-girlfriend Rebecca Hoskin and went to her Maidstone home about an hour later and told her he had “stabbed Pat”. Before doing so he washed his hands in a lake.

He told Miss Hoskin his bloody clothes needed washing. When police later arrived she pointed out the items he used to clean up. She had a panic button installed.

Selwood then contacted her and made threats, calling her a grass. He told her she should press her button because he was going there.

“He threatened to do what he had done to Mr Boylan,” Mr Brand told Maidstone Crown Court.

“He threatened to stab her and her children and made threats about her father.”

As well as the wounding charge, Selwood admitted sending a malicious communication. He was given nine months consecutive to the 15 months, making a total sentence of two years.

He had 17 previous convictions for 27 offences.

He received the longest sentence in 2008 after he stamped on his victim’s head, causing brain damage, at a party in Tonbridge.

A judge said he had already punched the man’s “lights out”.

In 2014, he knocked out a teenage girl, fracturing her eye socket, at a club in Tunbridge Wells. He was jailed for three years.

A few months earlier, he was locked up for 12 months for an affray involving a gang attack on neighbours by him and other members of his family.

Danny Moore, defending, said: “It is an unusual case because in reality the defendant and Mr Boylan have been friends for many years.”

Judge Martin Joy said he passed sentenced on the basis it was “reckless use of the weapon”.

“The Crown is not alleging you intended to stab the victim or intended to injure him,” he told Selwood.

“You were prosecuted on the basis this was a reckless act.

“In fact, it turned out he was injured, but it was not as serious as it could have been.

"A severely aggravating feature to this is you have significant previous convictions.”

A restraining order was made banning Selwood from contacting both Mr Boylan and Miss Hoskin.