Two men involved in a violent robbery, which saw the victim left with life-threatening stab wounds, have been locked up.

Aakeem Kelliot and Max Alexander were inside a property in Luton Road, Chatham, last year when they jumped a man who was staying with a friend.

The victim was subject to an “onslaught of punches” from 41-year-old Alexander, before Kelliot, 34, stabbed him with a knife he had picked up from the nearby kitchen.

Prosecutor Christopher May told Maidstone Crown Court on Tuesday how the victim suffered a collapsed lung and needed to be flown to King’s College Hospital in London for life-saving treatment. He was also knifed in the thigh and buttock.

Kelliot and Alexander were due to stand trial in February alongside three other co-defendants.

On the third day, Kelliot entered a guilty plea to an alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH).

Alexander was convicted by a jury of robbery.

Co-defendant James Naylor was found guilty of common assault, while the other two co-defendants – a driver who took Naylor, Kelliot and Alexander to the property, and a woman whom the victim was staying with – were cleared.

Mr May told the court how just before midnight on February 19, 2024, the 49-year-old victim had left the property to buy drugs nearby.

Between leaving the home and returning, the woman he was staying with had messaged Naylor to say she was sick of the victim and he “wouldn’t leave”.

Naylor messaged Kelliot and Alexander and the trio were taken to the Luton Road home, before Kelliot and Alexander were let into the home via the back door and were “lying in wait” for the victim.

When the man arrived back, he made his way through the house, next to the stairs, when Alexander attacked him.

The victim was then dragged into the living room, where the pair was shouting: “Give me the money, give me the drugs.”

Moments later, Kelliot, of no fixed address, stabbed the man in the armpit, thigh, and buttock.

Mr May explained how the “extremely serious” stab wound to the victim’s armpit was 9cm deep and was life-threatening.

He added: “It’s fortunate neither of these wounds cut into arteries, which were not far away.”

In an impact statement, the victim said he was “fighting for his life”, and was left “incredibly scared”. He had to spent eight weeks recovering in hospital.

Judge Julian Smith was told about Kelliot and Alexander’s previous convictions.

Kelliot had a long list of crimes, including burglary and drug offences, but none of the seriousness of the February 2024 incident. He had only been released on licence 19 days before the stabbing.

While Alexander, of no fixed address, had a “much more serious and worrying record than his co-defendant,” judge Smith said.

Most notably, in 2019, the then 35-year-old was locked up for beating another man, holding him hostage, and taking his valuables from him during a harrowing ordeal on Christmas Day in Reading.

Judge Smith described that incident as a “genuinely sinister robbery”.

Kelliot was handed a 10-year and four-month prison sentence, while Alexander was jailed for six years and six months.

Speaking after, DS Richard Taylor said: “This was a violent assault on an unsuspecting man who was visiting some people he knew. He did not expect to be stabbed, and it is only by chance that his injuries were not fatal.

“Kelliot and Alexander are individuals who resorted to the use of force in an attempt to unlawfully deprive the victim of cash and personal belongings.

“Having fled the scene of their crime, they did not expect to be swiftly identified and brought to justice by Medway detectives. This miscalculation has resulted in lengthy prison sentences for them both.”