Three men who were behind a serious assault on a man in Folkestone have been jailed for a total of more than 19 years.
Matthew Sales, Thomas Pearson and Jed Coates attacked the victim with a kitchen knife, a chain and a wooden bat in August 2020.
At Canterbury Crown Court on Wednesday 26 May 2021, Sales, 21, was given an eight-year sentence, Pearson, 35, was jailed for six and a half years and Coates, 21, received a five-year term.
Pearson from Folkestone, and Coates, also from Folkestone, had previously admitted wounding with intent and possession of an offensive weapon.
Sales, of no fixed address, had admitted the same offences as well as a charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to an earlier assault on the same victim.
The victim was leaving a shop in Cheriton Road at around 11.50am on Tuesday 25 August 2020 when Pearson approached him and punched him repeatedly in the face.
Coates then hit the victim with a wooden bat, Sales stabbed him in the leg with a kitchen knife and Pearson hit him with a bike chain. The attack was witnessed by a number of members of the public, including a young girl.
Emergency services were called and the victim, who was known to his attackers, was taken to a local hospital with stab wounds to his leg which required long-term treatment.
Police arrested Sales and Coates at a nearby property later that day and Pearson handed himself in at a police station on Tuesday 1 September.
During the investigation, it emerged that Sales had punched the victim and stabbed him with a screwdriver on Sunday 23 August 2020, two days before the Cheriton Road attack.
Detective Constable Natasha Russell, Kent Police’s investigating officer, said: ‘The incident in which these three men took part was a sustained, pre-planned and brutal assault and it is only by sheer chance that we were not dealing with far more serious injuries.
‘The attack would have been deeply shocking to anyone who witnessed it and I would like to thank everyone who came forward to assist our investigation to bring these men before the courts.
‘I am pleased the quality of evidence gathered avoided the need for a trial and I hope the length of the sentences passed gives the victim a sense that justice has been served.’