A THUG who stabbed two men outside a pub, leaving one with life threatening injuries, has been jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how Ryan Lloyd, 22, knifed Damian Stemp, 30, and then returned and stabbed him again as he lay injured on the ground.

Lloyd was told by a judge: "The profile you presented to the world before this incident was that of a young man, happy in a relationship with your girlfriend who has effectively never been in trouble before.

"It is almost beyond belief that you carried out such a horrific and awful attack."

The victim ended up in intensive care on respiratory support and in need of a tracheotomy, having suffered a sliced liver and bowel. He had to have part of his spleen removed.

Lloyd, of Springwood Road, Barming, near Maidstone, admitted wounding Mr Stemp with intent and unlawfully wounding Sonny Tolley, 20, outside the Fountain pub in Barming on August 25 last year.

Tolley, also of Springwood Road, was last month sentenced to two-and-a-half years youth custody for glassing another man.