ONE of three brothers was handed a life sentence and all are behind bars after they kicked a man unconscious on the streets of XXX.
J, 25, J, 21, and J, 19, waved to friends and family after being sentenced to a total of 18 years and 11 months at St Albans Crown Court on Friday.
Jurors had found the trio guilty of GBH with intent but not guilty of affray last Tuesday (August 16).
During the week-long trial, the court heard that victim Jonathan Ure had to undergo emergency surgery following a drunken attack outside Pizza Hut, in Howardsgate, on October 23 last year.
The WHT reported last week that Mr Ure's girlfriend had seen the brothers kick him "like a football" before turning on her when she tried to shield his motionless body.
Describing the incident as a "serious drunken piece of late night violence", Judge Findlay Baker QC told the stocky trio on Friday: "You intended to cause him serious injury and achieved your intention.
"By the time he got to hospital the following afternoon he had lost two-and-a-half pints of blood. His condition was life-threatening."
Judge Baker sentenced J (middle one) to life after it was revealed he had blinded a man in one eye by repeatedly kicking him in the head in a separate incident three years ago.
It was ordered he spend just six years in prison, on top of the 15 months unspent from his previous conviction. He would be eligible for release after three years.
Laban Leake, mitigating for J, said he had been on bail since October and not reoffended, so did not pose a significant risk to the public.
He said: "He expressed his distress at the suffering he has caused his parents."
The court heard that eldest brother J, who has a five-year-old son, had a string of previous convictions, including theft and assault and had been given five years for robbery in 2002.
In mitigation, defence counsel John Kearney said: "He has lost the early part of his son's life, he's now going to lose a later section. He feels badly about it."
J was handed six years, to begin after he has served 21 unspent months of his five year sentence. He will have to serve four years before being eligible for release.
Youngest brother J, who had no previous convictions, was sent to prison for three years and 11 months and will serve at least half the sentence.
His barrister Michael Latham said he was the "least and last involved" in the attack.
"He was living, until that night, a good and blameless life," he said. "He will bitterly regret his actions over the years.