TWO young thugs kicked a man as he lay on the ground during a “vicious and unprovoked” attack.

Brandon Gunn and pal Joseph Randall were itching for a fight in Olive Road in Hove, and created an argument with a man and his cousin as they returned home from a funeral.

The victim, a father-of-two, who The Argus is not naming, was punched, then when he was on the floor the young men booted him in the face.

It left onlookers “horrified” and fearing he had died. Blood poured from his mouth as his teeth went through his lips.

After four operations, he still has metal plates in his jaw.

Gunn, 20, and Randall, 19, both from Brighton, denied causing grievous bodily harm but were found guilty at Lewes Crown Court.

Judge Janet Waddicor sentenced them to nine years in prison.

“This was a truly shocking attack on two innocent people returning home having attended a funeral,” she said.

It happened in April 2017, when the duo and a teenage girl, who can’t be named for legal reasons, approached the victim, who has suffered from OCD and was overcoming his fear of going outside.

Piers Reed, prosecuting, said it was a “sustained and repeated assault” which has shattered the victim’s confidence, and left his cousin so traumatised that she quit her job as a hospital nurse.

The gang threatened her, but Antony Asquith, who was a passenger in a nearby car, stepped in to stop the gang.

Meanwhile Louise Elliott called the police and gave a blow-by-blow account. She then went to help the victim when he was stricken on the floor. She thought he had died.

Saeed Bastani was the third man to intervene, confronting the gang to prevent them running off.

Judge Waddicor praised them for not turning away and has recommended them for £250 High Sheriff’s awards.

But some people were apparently filming the violence and goading the aggressors, the judge said.

She said: “This was a vicious and unprovoked assault. The victims were simply on their way home from a funeral when they were picked on.”

Gunn brandished a knife at onlookers in an “act of bravado” as the group “sauntered” off.

They acted as though they were “victors” who had enjoyed some “light entertainment”, the judge said.

Defence counsel for all three defendants claimed they had all had difficult and sometimes “traumatic” childhoods.

Jonathan Edwards, defending Randall, said his client turned to violence and alcohol as a “survival strategy” on the road to his “disastrous teenage years.”

Jacob Gifford-Head, defending Gunn, tried to argue that his client suffers from ADHD.

The judge replied: “How is his ADHD linked to attacking someone in the street, with such force that his teeth ended up going through his lips?

“I’m sorry but that is gratuitous. You have to justify how ADHD is linked to the commission of the offence, a bare assertion will not do.”

The young men were also sentenced for a number of other violent offences, including a joint attack on a group of teenagers on their way to a party in Hove in July 2017.

Piers Reed, prosecuting, said: Brandon Gunn snatched a bottle of vodka from one boy, then struck him with it, leaving the boy unconscious.

When the boy's mother came to assist her son, Randall threatened her with a knife to stop her intervening, before punching a second boy in the face.

For this attack, eight months was added to Randall’s sentence, and nine months was added to Gunn’s sentence.

Randall was given concurrent sentences for stealing £2,550 from a till at Lewes Post Office, two counts of possessing a knife, and four house burglaries.

He also carried out a racist attack in October 2017 at a hotel in Brighton. He racially abused a night manager and punched the man in the face.

“This was a shocking assault on someone doing his job at night it was humiliating in front of other people,” Judge Waddicor said.

For this attack, a further 18 months was added to his sentence. Gunn faced no further penalty for possessing cannabis.

Gunn, formerly of Grand Parade in Brighton, and Randall, formerly of Barcombe Road in Moulsecoomb, appeared in prison via video link.

The girl with them was sentenced to 60 hours of unpaid work and a year-long youth rehabilitation order for affray.