A TRADESMAN who left his friend with permanent facial scars after attacking him at a funeral has been jailed.

Kelvin Wilkinson ‘ripped the face’ of his victim during a wake at a pub in Lymm, before callously laughing at the seriously injured man.

On Friday, September 28, the 43-year-old was jailed for two years at Chester Crown Court.

The court heard that the victim had attended his sister-in-law’s funeral in June 2017 and went to a number of pubs in the village following the service.

At around 10pm, he and Wilkinson were both in the Golden Fleece on the Cross when the latter saw another man ‘chatting up’ his ex-wife at the bar.

When the pair went outside the pub, the victim stood between the two in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

But Wilkinson, of School Drive, stuck him to the left hand side of his face and ‘laughed and mocked’ the man when he saw his injuries.

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He was rushed to Aintree Hospital after sustaining a ‘gaping’ 4cm wound to his mouth, which was ‘torn apart’ by the blow.

The victim - who had been friends with Wilkinson for 25 years, travelled around Asia and celebrated Christmas with him - had to undergo surgery under general anaesthetic and was in theatre for several hours before being discharged from hospital three days later.

While doctors believed the injuries were ‘likely to have been caused by a glass’ and Wilkinson had been seen holding a glass shortly before the incident, no witnesses saw the tiler use this as a weapon.

And though the defendant claimed that he had been punched first, this was not accepted by the prosecution.

A victim personal statement read out in court said that the self-employed financial adviser had lost around £25,000 due to time off work following the incident, which he had 'kept replaying in his head'.

He added that he was frightened of going into Lymm in case he bumped into his attacker, meaning that he was 'unable to enjoy a normal village life'.

The victim had also been unable to eat solid foods following the attack and was forced to drink using a child's beaker, and will be left permanently scarred to the face.

Dad-of-two Wilkinson - who was described in court as a 'decent, hard-working, kind and considerate man' - admitted unlawful wounding on the first day of a scheduled trial in August.

Judge Patrick Thompson jailed the tiler – who had two previous convictions for unrelated offences – for two years and imposed a restraining order, preventing him from contacting the victim.

Sentencing, judge Thompson said: "This was a horrible injury - it must have taken an excessive amount of force, as you effectively ripped his face.

"It has been a long and drawn out recovery process for him.

"After what happened, your response was to laugh.

"There is a very different side to you - it is clear to me that you are a loving and dedicated father to two young children.

“On this particular night, you did not behave responsibly.

"These offences were committed under the influence of alcohol, and there was gratuitous degradation of the victim by laughing at him.

"There was significant use of violence in a public place, and this calls for an immediate custodial sentence."

Wilkinson, who was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge, will serve half of his sentence before being released on licence.