A couple who launched a vicious attack on a man at his home have escaped jail sentences.

Tara Green joined in after her ex-boyfriend Bryan Osbourne was knocked to the ground and kicked by her new partner Kenneth Cripps.

Green, of Lughorse Lane, Yalding, was sentenced to 51 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.

Cripps, of Beaumont Road, Maidstone, was sentenced to 34 weeks imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to complete 180 hours unpaid work.

Mother-of-three Green had previously denied assault causing actual bodily harm but was convicted by a jury. Cripps admitted the charge.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the couple went to confront Mr Osbourne at his home in Bishops Close, Nettlestead, on February 24 last year.

Recorder Nicholas Cameron said he considered the attack that ensued was premeditated.

Cripps, 42, grabbed the victim by the shirt and punched him in the face repeatedly. Mr Osbourne fell to the ground with Cripps on top of him.

While Mr Osbourne had Cripps in a rugby tackle, Green, 39, punched and kicked him. The attack stopped when Green told Cripps it was enough.

The victim lost consciousness. He was left with bruising and a swollen eye. Because his phone had been destroyed, he was unable to call for help.

When asked why she did not get him medical assistance, Green replied: “Why should I phone the ambulance?”

Thomas Allen, for Cripps, said the offence seemed to have arisen out of Mr Osbourne making comments about Green to their young child.

Mr Osbourne had confronted the couple because he believed they had damaged his car.

Cripps accepted that on being pushed by Mr Osbourne he punched him and that it went beyond self-defence.

Mr Allen said the victim had a pre-existing eye injury and there was no ongoing damage caused.

The judge said Green’s eldest son was born with fluid on the brain and she had devoted her life to caring for him.

Cripps’s life had been hit by tragedy, his wife dying 2006, leaving their children without a mother.