A thug who took violent revenge on a resident who complained about his quad bike churning up snow he had cleared outside his home has been jailed for seven years.

Lee Edwards "stewed" after Peter Wilkins swore at him and returned later armed with a metal truncheon and a knife. He then beat the victim with the cosh and stabbed him in the shoulder.

Edwards, of Brookbank, Maidstone, denied wounding with intent but was convicted by a jury in November.

A judge said it was "a horrendous, if isolated incident" fuelled by alcohol.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Mr Wilkins had been clearing the snow in Barnehurst Road, Penenden Heath, for about an hour on the morning of February 5 last year when Edwards, 34, arrived on the quad bike with his young daughter as a passenger.

Mr Wilkins admitted in evidence he was angry and swore at Edwards as he told him not to ride the bike in his road.

"I basically told him that I hadn't cleared the area for him to churn it back up," he said. "His attitude was that he wasn't really bothered about it and was more upset that I had scared his daughter."

That evening, Mr Wilkins was parking his car when Edwards returned. As he opened the car door he was hit across his hand, arm and collarbone with the truncheon.

Mr Wilkins said the bar fell to the ground with the third blow. He then saw a knife in Edwards's gloved hand.

"I hopped out the car and grabbed hold of him by his wrists," he added. "I tried to restrain him with his arms up in the air. I bit one of his fingers.

"There was a lot of struggling and I was in panic mode. I remember shouting: 'Why are you trying to stab me?'' He said something about frightening or upsetting his daughter."

"there was a lot of struggling and i was in panic mode. i remember shouting: 'why are you trying to stab me?'..." – peter wilkins, defending

Edwards eventually ran off when the victim's parents came out of the house.

"My mum was in panic mode and couldn't believe what had happened," he said. "I turned to shut the door and she noticed there was blood all over my heavy fleece jacket."

He needed stitches to repair the wound. He picked Edwards out of an identification parade.

Mr Recorder Andrew Moran QC said Edwards had lay in wait as his victim returned home from work at night.

He only stopped the assault when Mr Wilkins's parents came out of their home to see what was happening.

The judge said there were features of the case that indicated high culpability, in particular premeditation and use of two weapons and the intention to cause more harm that actually resulted.

"It seems to be an aberration fuelled in part by consuming alcohol," he added. "There is a degree of remorse."

Edwards denied being the attacker in court, but accepted his guilt when he appeared for sentence.

Thug Lee Edwards was jailed at Maidstone Crown Court

John Fitzgerald, defending, said the father-of-two was confronted in the street by an angry man wielding a shovel.

The victim, he said, told Edwards: "You should not be on the road. You have got your daughter on the front with no crash helmet. Why don't you go to your own neck of the woods?"

"His daughter leapt from the quad bike and ran off very frightened," said Mr Fitzgerald. "When he got home, he was still shaking. He stewed on that for the day, I am afraid.

"He is not a heavy drinker, but he was drinking. He left the house a man who had seen his little girl terrified. He went to have it out with that person he blamed for that.

"There were a few swipes with the knife and a few strikes with the truncheon."

Mr Fitzgerald said Edwards was normally a hard-working, decent family man.

e had been in custody for three months and was feeling it acutely, he added.