A MAN has been jailed for his part in a vicious attack on a 50-year-old man in Bromsgrove.

Jeffrey Rainsden was walking home along Bromsgrove High Street when he was attacked in an act described by a judge at Worcester Crown Court as "horribly cowardly".

Two drunken men punched the victim to the ground when he rejected their request for a cigarette in the attack in the early hours of August 29 last year.

The offenders then kicked him as he lay on the ground and one of them bit his ear.

His mobile phone also disappeared and was never recovered. Both men denied robbery but admitted assault causing actual bodily harm.

Paul Williams, 27, of Bucklands End Lane, Birmingham, did not turn up for his trial but was found guilty in his absence. He was eventually arrested and appeared before the court on a charge of failing to surrender to bail.

Lee Marklew, prosecuting, said Mr Rainsden also had an eye socket fractured in the attack. But he accepted that it was not Williams who inflicted the bite.

His accomplice had been jailed for 16 months.

Julian Harris, mitigating, said Williams was a thief but not a violent thug. He was a carer for his mother and had written a letter of remorse apologising for his action.

Williams was jailed for 18 months for the assault plus 14 days consecutive for failing to answer to his bail.