A thug who launched an unprovoked attack on another man outside a pub and continued the assault while he was unconscious on the ground was branded “a true coward” by a judge.

Stephen Stout was outside the Prince of Wales in Railway Street, Chatham, early on July 19 looking for friends.

Maidstone Crown Court heard he was sitting on a wall when Leonard Ward approached and started being aggressive.

He took his jacket off and Mr Stout, 32, stood up and put his hands up to stop him going closer to him.

Prosecutor Keith Yardy said Ward, 26, punched the victim to the face. As he fell to the ground he hit his head and was unconscious.

But Ward, who had downed about six pints of lager, continued to punch him several more times to the head, before walking away. Mr Stout’s friends and others went to help him.

A pub worker asked who had done it and Ward boasted: “It was me."

Ambulance staff treated the victim at the scene for a one-inch cut to his forehead and bruising to his face and neck. He had a black eye and memory loss.

“It was a sustained or repeated assault and a vulnerable victim was targeted as he was on the ground unconscious,” said Mr Yardy. “He was repeatedly punched and unable to defend himself.”

Mr Stout told in a statement of his embarrassment of having to go to work with facial injuries.

He added he had moved to Medway from London to avoid violence.

Ward, of Magpie Hall Road, Chatham, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm.

He had previous convictions for violence. Keith Middleton, defending, said the ground worker, claimed he was talking to another man and asked Mr Stout not to keep interrupting. The assault happened, he said, because the victim did not stop.

He submitted that a suspended sentence with “swingeing conditions” could be imposed, and the victim could be compensated.

But jailing Ward for 10 months, Recorder John Bate-Wiliams said: “Despite Mr Stout trying to ward you off, you punched him to the ground unconscious.”

An indefinite restraining order was made.