A FATHER and son suffered severe injuries at the hands of three men who "behaved like a pack of crazed dogs", Bristol Crown Court heard.

Michael Ford, 53, and his son Bryan, 25, were walking home from a Halloween party in Yate last year when they were attacked by Samuel Clark, Bradley Mason and Steven Hudd.

Clark, 21, Mason, 22, and Hudd, 23, had been at the Farmhouse Inn in Yate and had been involved in a row over a broken car window.

Clark was driven home to Sundridge Park, Yate, by police but later re-joined his two friends.

The trio came upon Michael and Bryan Ford in Greenways Road, Yate, and attacked them, mistakenly thinking they had been involved in the incident at the Farmhouse Inn.

Father and son were punched, kicked and stamped on and hit with a belt, the court heard.

Mr Ford, an engineer, said: "They attacked us twice. They came running at us yelling and we fought them off.

"Mason was armed with a belt. The belt buckle ripped the tendons out of one of my fingers.

"People came out of their houses and they ran off. We followed them a short way and we phoned the police. They doubled back and attacked us a second time."

He grappled one of the men to the floor but then another of the trio held him while the third kicked his head "like a football".

Mr Ford suffered a fractured skull as well as the damaged tendons in his hand and was in hospital for three days. His son sustained a cut to his lower eyelid.

Passing motorists stopped and residents came out of their houses, stopping the attack.

Samuel Clark, Mason, of Staple Hill Road, Fishponds, and Steven Hudd, of Windsor Drive, Yate, were arrested within a few minutes.

Mason, who admitted wounding and violent disorder, was jailed for four years as was Hudd, who pleaded guilty to charges of wounding, assault causing actual bodily harm, assault, carrying an offensive weapon and failing to surrender to bail. Clark, who admitted wounding, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Judge Simon Darwall-Smith said: "The accounts from witnesses and the victims describe you behaving like a pack of crazed dogs. It is nothing short of a miracle that Mr Ford was not left dead or brain damaged."