A yobbish loner who kicked a man repeatedly in the head after pushing him to the ground has been jailed for a total of 28 months.

Deemster Graeme Cook described Kyle Collins’ behaviour as ‘yobbish, brutish and cowardly’.

The Court of General Gaol Delivery heard that on the evening of July 8 last year, Collins, 28, had been drinking in the Saddle Inn in Douglas where he had shown unwarranted attention to a woman and been asked to leave by the landlord.

He began to follow the woman when she went outside and then got into an alcohol-fuelled argument on Ridgeway Street with the couple she was with when they told him to leave her alone.

Matters escalated when he threw a drink over the other woman and a fight broke out. Collins pushed her husband to the ground and then, the court heard, went ‘far too far’ by kicking him in the head six or seven times.

When a passing taxi driver told him to stop, he punched his victim in the face instead.

The man was taken unconscious to Noble’s Hospital.

He had suffered multiple fractures to his facial bones.

The defendant told police he had acted in self-defence but went on to admit a charge of causing grievous bodily harm.

In a victim impact statement, the man said he had been left in a lot of pain.

He was to have been airlifted to Aintree Hospital for nose and forehead reconstruction surgery but he had decided not to go ahead with the operation due to the risk it might cause blindness or drop eye.

The victim said as a result of the assault he suffered headaches and migraines that could put him in bed for three days. He said he could no longer perform part of his job as a groundworker as he couldn’t operate all the machinery.

The victim’s wife, in her impact statement, said she had been left with a broken wrist and she couldn’t straighten her fingers or bend her thumb.

She said the couple’s lives had changed dramatically and the situation had left her feeling ‘angry, upset and frustrated’.

Collins, of Clarence Terrace, Douglas, also admitted a charge of shoplifting while on police bail for the assault. He had tried to steal two bottles of wine and a pepperoni pizza from M&S.

Defence advocated David Reynolds described his client as ‘very much a loner’. He had left school at 16 with 11 GCSEs but had been in and out of employment since then.

He said Collins had difficulties with addiction and a strained relationship with his parents, and had been diagnosed with ADHD and a personality disorder.

Deemster Cook jailed him for 27 months for the gbh offence and one month consecutive for the shoplifting offence.