A pair of street attackers have been jailed after they kicked a wedding guest so savagely his children have had nightmares about his shattered face.

Anthony Lower and Robert Dobbin were angry with victim Jared Kenny because of a petty squabble in a pub toilet and attacked him as he and his wife were walking home.

Horrified witnesses saw them kicking him as if they were taking a penalty kick and carrying on the attack ’hell for leather’.

Mr Kenny had spent the day at a friend’s wedding and gone on to the pub in Teignmouth with fellow guests.

He spent eight days in hospital and his face had to be rebuilt with metal rods and wires after his upper and lower jaw, cheek bone and two teeth were smashed.

Care worker Mr Kenny made a victim impact statement which revealed his injuries had a profound effect on him, his wife, and three children, one of whom is having nightmares about people’s faces melting.

Ice cream seller Lower, aged 30, of Lower Kingsdown Road, Teignmouth, and chip shop worker Dobbin, aged 27, of The Mews, Dawlish, both admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Lower was jailed for two years and three months and Dobbin for two years by Judge Michael Cullum at Exeter Crown Court.

He told them: ’One witness described you going hell for leather and another described the kicks as being like penalties, with you stopping and pausing before delivering them.

’Mr Kenny was on the floor defenceless and it matters little whether there was stamping. It is clear he suffered very serious injuries to his face.

’His upper and lower jaw required a significant amount of plates to be fitted and there has been a permanent amendment to his face. He suffers PTSD and not surprisingly he feels it has affected his family.

’This was a serious, sustained and repeated assault in which you both used your feet to his head.

Miss Janice Eagles said Mr Kenny and his wife had been to a wedding and went on to the Wetherspoon pub in Teignmouth.

There was a petty incident in the toilet in which a friend of Mr Kenny’s mocked Dobbin for combing his hair in the mirror and there was an exchange of words.

Mr Kenny was walking home with his wife when he noticed Lower and Dobbin behind him and after a short confrontation he was attacked.

He was knocked out as he tried to flee and bumped into a lamp post in Bank Street and was kicked to the head as he lay on the ground.

A passing driver stopped and shouted ’police’ because she thought they were going to kill him. It caused them to stop and run away.

Mr Kenny made a victim impact statement saying he is still in pain more than a year after the attack and the injuries have affected him and his family.

He said: ’My three-year-old son has nightmares about the faces of family members melting and disappearing. I did not contribute to this attack. I did not deserve what happened. It has had a massive effect physically and psychologically.

’It has caused pain and suffering to me and my family, particularly my children.’

’Mr Stephen Nunn, for Dobbin, said he had been the subject of threatening language in the pub and panicked during the later confrontation in the street.

He said:’He got carried away in the moment through drink, through fear, and through inexperience. It is very difficult for him to know exactly what he has done.

Mr Sean Brunton, for Lower, said he is a family man with two children who will be deprived of his support while he is in jail.

He said: ’He went to the assistance of a friend. In retrospect he knows he should have just walked away. He is distraught at the predicament of the victim.