A thug who attacked an angler has been jailed for three years.

Darryl Manners almost drowned in the River Medway after Carl Quinnell struck him with a wooden pole.

A judge told Quinnell, who has previous convictions for violence: “This was a vicious and brutal assault. It was unprovoked - entirely without justification on a man enjoying fishing on a river bank on a public footpath.”

The victim was fishing in Tovil on September 28 last year when Quinnell approached and told him: “I told you when you are on your own what I was going to do to you.”

He then struck Mr Manners, who he wrongly accused of an offence, and he went into the water.

Witness Donald Sweeney was in the garden of a friend’s home when he heard shouting.

“I saw a man standing on the bank shouting at someone or something in the water,” he told a jury.

“I saw just a head bobbing in the water about five or six feet out from the bank. A man was swearing.

“I shouted to my friend about someone in the water drowning. I had a small camera and I took a few pictures and gave them to the police.”

A woman who lived in a flat nearby said she saw Mr Manners “going down” in the water and thought he was going to drown.

“Paramedics arrived,” she said. “I was quite surprised the man who had been in the water was standing up. He had blood on his forehead.

“All the time the man was in the water I didn’t understand why the other people didn’t help him until he was under the water. They seemed to be oblivious to it.”

Mr Manners was in intensive care for seven days. He needed “significant” amounts of oxygen and a CT scan revealed an abnormal collection of blood on the back of his head,

Quinnell, 51, of Church Place, Waterloo Street, Maidstone, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm. He denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and was acquitted by a jury.

Recorder Brian Argyle told him: “The injuries suffered were serious. You carried out this attack in full public view. I regard this as an extremely serious case.”

A restraining order, banning contact with the victim, was imposed for two years.