A man needed two operations for facial injuries after he was assaulted with a mug, a court heard.

Mark Allaway was left with an 8cm gash near his eye and another below the eye socket in the attack by 24-year-old shop fitter Reece Blackston.

Blackston, of Longfield Road, Meopham, was visiting his sister Sadie at her home in Park Place, Gravesend, in June last year when trouble started between him and Mr Allaway and his wife Rachel.

The couple lived opposite Miss Blackston and their son was the father of her child.

Maidstone Crown Court was told there was ill feeling between the two families and Blackston overheard them make “unattractive, choice remarks”.

Blackston, who had been drinking, confronted the Allaways. He threw a drink over Mrs Allaway and then threw the mug at Mr Allaway.

"This caused an extremely ugly injury which has led to Mr Allaway having to have two operations at specialist eye hospitals" Judge Phillip Statman

Judge Philip Statman said: “This caused an extremely ugly injury which has led to Mr Allaway having to have two operations at specialist eye hospitals.”

Mr and Mrs Allaway were due to give evidence at Blackston’s trial but refused to attend, claiming they had received threatening phone calls.

Blackston had denied unlawfully wounding Mr Allaway, a plea which was accepted, but admitted assaulting him, causing actual bodily harm. He admitted common assault on Mrs Allaway.

He was jailed for 25 months in April for conspiracy to steal more than £5,000 of fuel from petrol stations in Gravesend, Medway, Swale, Sevenoaks and Maidstone.

His earliest release date would have been April 22 next year, but Judge Statman jailed him for eight months, to be served consecutively. He is unlikely to be released until August next year.

John Fitzgerald, defending, said Blackston was brought up in an “extremely unstable environment which led to instability and chaos”. But when he went to remonstrate with the Allaways, he was met by “fairly robust” householders.

Mr Fitzgerald said: “It wasn’t a case of him marching into someone’s house to attack them without any provocation. There’s a little more to it than that.”

Prosecutor Claire Cooper said Mr and Mrs Allaway both claimed they had been threatened four days before the trial was due to start and were in “abject fear”.