TWO men have been jailed for a string of violent assaults – including a stabbing and an unprovoked attack on a stranger that left the victims fear that they were going to die.

Michael Boardman stabbed a man twice in a Great Sankey home and Thomas Bowler repeatedly hit a man in the face with a metal bar when a gang of 10 people attacked a stranger in Brickfields Park.

Bowler also sexually assaulted a woman in the Original Wire on Orford Lane and left her boyfriend needing emergency surgery after he punched him in the face.

Boardman will spend nine years behind bars for the attacks while Bowler was jailed for three years and four months at Chester Crown Court on Monday.

In the early hours of October 19 2014, the 25-year-olds arrived at a house on Ashbourne Road, Great Sankey, and were allowed to enter.

Jason Marshall intervened when they ignored requests to leave at around 5am – Bowler reacted by punching him in the face, and Mr Marshall then noticed that Boardman was holding a 12 inch kitchen knife.

Boardman stabbed him in the right forearm and when Mr Marshall fell to the sofa he was stabbed again in the rib cage.

The court heard that Mr Marshall felt like he was going to die and was treated for five days in hospital with serious injuries that affected his organs.

On October 13 2013, the pair were part of a gang of 10 who attacked a stranger in an alleyway leading to Brickfields Park in Orford.

Shaun Sutcliffe, previously unknown to the defendants, had gone to buy milk shortly after midnight when he came across the group.

The court heard that Boardman was ‘off his head’ and punched Mr Sutcliffe twice, elbowed him in the side of his face and bit his hand before Bowler hit him in the face with a metal bar.

Mr Sutcliffe was surrounded by the group and received numerous kicks, punches and blows from the metal bar before he played dead.

The court heard that he thought they were going to kill him.

When the gang left, Mr Sutcliffe crawled to Orford Lane where he was found by a member of the public and taken to Warrington Hospital with a fractured cheekbone.

The court heard the ‘sustained and repeated attack’ caused problems which led to the breakdown of Mr Sutcliffe’s marriage, while he fears going out and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder.

On March 20 2014, Bowler was using a gambling machine in the Original Wire when he groped a woman and waved his arm about as though he was smacking her.

He laughed and said: “Shake that, shake that.”

Bowler and his friends were ejected from the pub but tried to get back in and the woman’s boyfriend put his back to the door of the pub to stop them.

They managed to enter and Bowler punched him in the face twice – the victim required emergency surgery as a result of the ‘unprovoked drunken violence’.

The court heard that the relationship between the couple has broken down as a result of the attack.

The pair were sentenced at Chester Crown Court on Monday.

Boardman, of Barmouth Close, Callands, pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm and wounding with intent.

Bowler, of Guilford Close, Longbarn, admitted grievous bodily harm and assault but pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.

He was sentenced for his part in the stabbing on a separate occasion and imprisoned for 10 weeks after admitting common assault.

Sentencing, Recorder Guy Mathieson said: “These are assaults that are hideous in their violence – the victims are lucky but the defendants are lucky as well because the injuries weren’t serious.”

The court heard that Boardman has young children who he is ‘utterly devoted to’.

Recorder Mathieson added: “It was a serious offence in which a knife was used to injure in somebody’s house and against people you didn’t have a grudge against.

“Boardman has a history of reacting with violence and sometimes extreme violence for the slightest perceived problem or simply because he takes offence at people walking past.

“This is a sustained and repeated assault on a victim who offered you no reason to do so – it’s utterly gratuitous.

“There is no doubt that drink and drugs and knowing Boardman has played a significant part in Bowler’s offending.

“It was utterly gratuitous violence – you had no reason to get involved with what your friend had started.

“You repeatedly used a metal bar on a victim who offered no reason for you to do so – I have simply no idea why you acted in that way.”