TWO drunken men who were involved in a late night attack during which a man suffered brain damage have been jailed for 21 months.

James Millgate was knocked to the ground near Cardinal Park in Ipswich and was repeatedly punched in the face and kicked to the head by Lloyd Aldis.

He was also punched in the face by Aldis’s friend Stewart Maclachlan, Ipswich Crown Court was told.

After the attack by the two men, Mr Millgate was set upon by a number of other people and one witness described Mr Millgate’s head being kicked like a football during that part of the incident.

Mr Millgate was knocked unconscious during the attack on November 8, 2011 and suffered a broken nose, cuts to his mouth and also had a degree of brain damage which had left him with daily headaches and lethargy.

Aldis, 22, of Coronation Drive, Felixstowe, and Maclachlan, 21, of Rowarth Avenue, Kesgrave, denied assaulting Mr Millgate causing him actual bodily harm and were found guilty after a trial at Ipswich Crown Court last month. Sentence was adjourned until Friday.

Jailing the men Deputy Circuit Judge P Clegg said Mr Millgate had been forced to give up his university course following the attack.

“He may recover fully and equally he may not,” said Judge Clegg.

He said Aldis had mistakenly thought Mr Millgate had knocked a girl over and had run over to punish him.

“You ran over and flew at him and repeatedly punched him in the face and kicked him about the head,” he said.

He said Maclachlan had run over out of a sense of misguided loyalty to Aldis and had repeatedly punched Mr Millgate in the face while he was on the ground.

Judge Clegg said it was clear that other young men had joined in the attack after the two defendants had left and witnesses who saw the latter part of the incident had described Mr Millgate’s head being kicked like a football.

“By this time, the most vicious part of the attack, you’d ceased to be involved either because you’d walked off or been dragged off,” he added.

He said both defendants had been very drunk and probably wouldn’t have acted in the way they did if they had been sober.

He said if the defendants had been involved in the last part of the attack he would have jailed them for four years.

Ian Persaud for Aldis said his client had acted out of character and handed in to the court references from a number of people who spoke highly of him.

Lindsay Cox for Maclachlan said his client was ordinarily a decent young man.

“On this night he got involved in something that was not his usual behaviour,” he said.