A thug who was jailed for a group attack on a man, leaving him with life-changing injuries, left an open prison – because he was being bullied.

Samuel Grief also claimed he walked out of HMP Ford in West Sussex and fled to his Maidstone home because pressure was being put on him to smuggle illegal items in for other prisoners.

The 25-year-old father, then of Lucerne Street, was in March last year sentenced to four years and five months, along with Joseph Jabatie, then 28, and 26-year-old David Ademiju.

They all denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Jerome Starkey, who suffered three fractures to his jaw, but were convicted.

Ademiju, a barber, of Brewer Street, Maidstone, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years and hairdresser Jabatie, of Thackeray Road, Larkfield, for seven years.

Now, Grief is back in a secure jail with another six months added to his sentence after admitting escape.

Maidstone Crown court heard Grief was missing from a roll check on May 23 and his prison trousers were found near the farm shop.

Five days later police went to his home in Melville Road and returned him to jail.

John Barker, defending, said Grief knew he had done wrong, but couldn’t bring himself to do the right thing.

“The reason he did this was because he was being bullied,” he said. “He has a strong Kentish accent. He was being coerced into smuggling into prison. It was something he refused to do.

“It began to get to him and one lunchtime he walked out. He got back to Maidstone and spent time with his son. His wife got in touch with the authorities. He is now in a secure prison.”

Sentencing Grief, whose release date had been April next year, by TV link with Elmley Prison, Judge Adele Williams said: “Only an immediate sentence of imprisonment served consecutively is justified.”

Mr Starkey said of the attack on him in September 2016: “I had my head kicked in and my jaw broken. All of them started to kick and stamp on me.”

Ademiju was said to have landed a “manifestly fearsome punch” on the victim and the others beat him as he lay defenceless on the ground.