A THUG punched an elderly man in the face before stamping on his hand in a vicious attack.

Paul Teagle targeted his 75-year-old victim when he was going to the toilet in the sheltered accommodation they both lived at in Benfleet.

His victim, on the way to the toilet, had heard someone shout ‘Oi, you’ before Teagle reached and grabbed him in a headlock.

The 62-year-old punched his victim six times in the face, before the two of them fell to the floor as the victim tried to get free.

As the victim tried to push himself up on his hand, Teagle stamped on it three times, causing him considerable pain.

The man cried out, begging Teagle to stop, but he carried on his attack by punching him in the ribs, before finally running away shouting ‘I’m gonna kill ya’.

A neighbour then came to the pensioner’s aid and he was taken to Southend Hospital. He suffered a fracture below his left eye and has trouble moving his left hand as a result of the brutal attack.

Teagle was arrested in January this year at Stansfield Court, where the two men had bee living, and was later charged with common assault and causing grievous bodily harm.

He was initially due to stand trial having denied the offences, but later reversed his decision and admitted GBH. The common assault charge lays on file.

Teagle, now of Herbert Grove, Southend, appeared at Basildon Crown Court yesterday dressed in a dark shirt and brown jacket.

He remained impassive throughout the hearing, speaking only to confirm his identity.

In a victim impact statement read out by David Ryan, prosecuting, Teagle’s victim said he feels scared when people walk up behind him and still cannot move his left hand properly, and is more reliant on his car because he doesn’t want to walk to places.

Mitigating, Peter Clark said: “Before this incident the defendant lived on Canvey in a mobile home, which caught fire and destroyed all his possessions.

“This does not excuse this attack, but he had been living in sheltered accommodation and was under a lot of stress. He wasn’t his proper self.”

Sentencing Teagle, Recorder Barry Kogan said: “This was a totally unprovoked, unjustified and violent attack on this man.

“Your victim being the age he was meant he was particularly vulnerable.” Teagle was jailed for 21 months and given a restraining order, meaning he cannot go to Stansfield Road in Benfleet.