A Sutton man was beaten, stripped and left thinking he "was going to die" after being attacked by the two men he had been drinking with in a town centre pub just hours earlier.

Alan Cowlard, 22, told Kingston Crown Court he had had his life shattered after the attack in a public park left him temporarily unable to see and unconscious for seven hours.

Dennis Atkinson, 20, of The Market, Rosehill, and Angelo Pathalias, 19, of Castle Hill Avenue, New Addington befriended him in Chicago Rock Cafe before embarking on the unprovoked attack.

In court last Friday, Judge Charles Welchman described the crime as "an appalling offence" and handed Atkinson a six-year jail term while Pathalias was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Tara McCarthy, prosecuting, said Mr Cowlard went to the bar in Throwley Road on his own on August 18 last year where he met the men, spent time in their company and bought them drinks.

At midnight he left the venue and was reunited with the men who had been thrown out after an altercation with bouncers, and all three boarded a bus home.

Pathalias then suggested they get off the bus and take a shortcut through the Rosehill recreation ground.

The two men then launched their attack.

The court was told Pathalias pushed Mr Cowlard in the face before both men began to punch and kick him in a prolonged and sustained assault which left him lying on the ground.

The men then pulled off his trousers and t-shirt and robbed him of his mobile phone and cash.

"The victim was left in the park wearing only his underpants," Ms McCarthy said. "He could not see properly because his eyes had closed up and due to his injuries he had difficulties moving.

"He was disorientated and tried to call for help but no one heard him."

Mr Cowlard was discovered by passers-by at 8.30am and taken to St Helier Hospital suffering from extreme exposure, a suspected fractured cheek bone and nose, swelling around his eyes and fractures to his teeth.

In a statement read out in court, he said the experience, in which he felt he was going to die, had changed him from a confident, happy person into someone frightened to go out alone.

Pathalias and Atkinson were arrested several days later and pleaded guilty in Kingston Crown Court on January 10 to grievous bodily harm with intent.

On Friday Judge Welchman said: "The only explanation is that you both drank far too much and behaved in a totally reprehensible way.

"It is a grave crime and it is necessary that there should be a custodial sentence for the protection of the public from your callous actions and thuggery."

Nick Bleaney, representing Atkinson, and Richard Maloney, defending Pathalias, said their clients carried out the assault during an alcohol-fuelled loss of control and were extremely sorry for what they had done.

At the time of the attack, Atkinson was on bail for assaulting a petrol station attendant and trying to ignite petrol at a service station on Reigate Avenue, Sutton, on July 30, 2004.

Judge Welchman sentenced him to serve 30 months for attempted arson and two years for assault occasioning actual bodily harm to run concurrently with his jail term for GBH.