A THUG who launched a brutal, unprovoked attack on a nightclub goer was out on licence after a jail sentence for a similar attack just a few years ago.

Jamie Bowers was jailed again earlier this week after admitting causing grievous bodily harm with intent after he attacked the innocent man with his belt buckle as he left the Edge nightclub in July 2019.

It left his victim needing several eye surgeries and forced him to give up on his aspirations to join the military or police force.

But the 23-year-old was given a lengthy custodial sentence just five years ago after another nightclub attack.

Bowers and another young man were out at the Medina nightclub in Theatre Square in the early hours of September 24, 2016 when they punched their victim to the ground in the doorway to the men’s toilets before raining numerous kicks and stamps on his head.

At Swindon Crown Court last week, prosecutor Andrew Houston said that the victim was left with a fractured eye socket in the incident.

In the sentencing hearing back in 2017, it was still not known what was behind the beating.

Jailing him to three and a half years in a youth offenders’ institution, Judge Tim Mousley told the then-18-year-old: “The assault was a very serious offence. Anybody who has seen that CCTV has had to witness a sickening sight.

"This was mindless violence of an extreme nature. Mercifully his injuries were not as bad as one might expect. There was severe bruising and swelling to his face.

"There was bleeding and there was damage to his teeth and it was all caused by the two of you acting jointly using shoes when he was on the ground and jumping on his head.

“You Bowers were seen to stamp on him approximately 10 times and you had to be pulled off.

"There were more than 20 kicks and it looks like it went on for more than two minutes, or thereabouts.”

The Medina attack cropped up when Mr Houston was outlining the facts of this case at Swindon Crown Court earlier this week.

He described how the victim had been leaving the Edge nightclub when a “really angry” Bowers approached him, before lashing out with the buckle of his belt.

It caught him to the outside of his right eye, and as the victim covered his eyes, he was struck again, cutting his hands.

Bowers then hit the victim’s friend when he intervened, cutting his chin and his cheek.

Sentencing, Judge Jason Taylor QC acknowledged the “triple whammy” of aggravation. At the time of the attack, he was on licence having been released after the Medina attack; was serving a suspended sentence for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs; and was also on police bail.

Judge Taylor deemed him “dangerous” and a high risk for reoffending.

He jailed Bowers for six years and four months, and extended his licence period for three years and two months after that.