A 21-YEAR-old was today starting a four-year jail term for his part in a violent attack which left a man with brain damage and multiple injuries.

Mark Maton, of Argyll Road, Westcliff, was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court, after he was found guilty at his trial in November last year of seriously wounding Paul Lees on July 5 2003.

His accomplice Mark Roberts, 26, who did not appear for the trial or at yesterday's hearing, was sentenced in his absence to five years behind bars.

The court heard how on the day in question Maton, Roberts and another friend Ian Colston, who was not prosecuted, were out drinking when they received a call from a woman they knew.

She told them her former partner Mr Lees had broken into her Westcliff home and was threatening her with a 10 inch kitchen knife.

The three men rushed to her flat and were confronted by a drunken Mr Lees who wielded the knife as he blocked the front entrance.

Two banged on neighbours doors in the hope they would alert police before all three wrestled Mr Lees to the ground and managed to take the knife out of his hand.

At this point Mr Colston ran upstairs to check on the frightened woman and the defendants Maton and Roberts, also of Argyll Road, savagely beat Mr Lees.

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