A 21-year-old who carried out a "brutal" attack on a man "for fun" was today jailed for eight years.

Ashley Williams' family were left in a “bubble of despair” after he suffered life-threatening injuries in the attack, in which he was repeatedly kicked in the face and head.

Daniel Stanley Burt was jailed today at Kingston Crown Court by a judge who said the effects of the attack would stay with the 20-year-old victim and his family for “many years”.

Judge Nicholas Price said: “This was an astonishing and brutal attack on someone who was entirely innocent of any wrongdoing.

“You stole from your victim a mobile phone but you said, chillingly, it [the attack] was not for money but just for fun.

“It’s not exaggerating to say Ashley was very nearly kicked to death.

“His family too have suffered and the consequences of your actions will continue to have repercussions for Ashley and his family for many years if not for life."

Mr Williams has been left with a limited attention span and is having intensive speech therapy after the attack, which affected his voice.

The court heard how Mr Williams met Burt by chance on a bus as he travelled home after drinking with work friends in Twickenham's William Web Ellis pub in the early hours of March 28.

The two knew each other and Mr Williams gave his phone to Burt to show what was believed to be a funny video.

However, rather than return the phone Burt ran off the bus with it and Ashley gave chase catching up with him in Palmerstone Road, Twickenham.

Burt, who had been drinking and taking drugs that night, knocked Mr Williams to the floor where he began kicking him in the head and face.

A member of the public found Mr Williams alone and unconscious on the ground and called 999.

During this time Burt returned and carried on kicking Mr Williams in the head before walking off down Rugby Road.

Mr Williams suffered numerous fractures to the jaw and swelling and bruising of the brain and remained in critical condition in an induced coma for nine days.

Philip Bennetts, for the prosecution, read a letter from Mr Williams’ mum in court.

In the letter she said: “Life continued for all us but we were lost in a bubble of despair. “He is not the Ashley we know and love. He jumps at the slightest noise.

“I have no feelings towards the person who did it [but] I will never ever understand how a human being could do what he did to another.”

Speaking after the hearing, Detective Sergeant David Bolton welcomed the sentence, calling the attack “absolutely horrific”.

Burt, of Strawberry Hill Road, Strawberry Hill, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm with intent and was told he would serve half his sentence in prison, minus the 262 days he has already spent on remand.