The victim of a late night attack in St Albans was left with swellings to his eye and a testicle by his assailant, who punched and kicked him.

John Gumble, 28, of Watson Avenue, St Albans, was jailed for 17-and-a-half-months on Wednesday (14) at St Albans Crown Court.

Gumble used his fists and then his feet on his 23-year-old victim, causing swelling to his right eye and a grossly enlarged left testicle.

He attacked the brother of a man he believed had burgled his aunt’s home.

St Albans Crown Court heard the victim had left an address in Artisan Crescent and was in Waverley Road at about 10.30pm on August 24 last year, when Gumble called over to him.

Prosecutor Max Hardy said the victim was punched three times to the face. He fell to the ground, where he was punched and then kicked twice in the groin.

Mr Hardy added: “He curled up in a ball. The defendant said: ‘Look at me. I am not going to hit you’, but he looked up and was hit more times in the face.”

The victim was taken to Watford General Hospital for treatment. In a victim personal statement, he said he still gets occasional pain in his testicle.

When Gumble was arrested, he said he did not understand why the victim said he had been assaulted.

Gumble appeared for sentencing having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing actual bodily harm. He had 18 convictions for 49 offences.

Alex Britton, defending, said there was no good reason for the attack, but Gumble had believed the victim’s brother had burgled his aunt’s home.

He said his client had been “candid” with probation officers and had kept out of trouble since the assault.

Mr Britton said Gumble had spent time on remand and 197 days on a qualifying electronic curfew.

He said that drug addiction had been the underlying cause of his offending, but Gumble was trying to set a positive example to his children and had a van and was starting a removal business.

Jailing him, Judge John Plumstead said: “It was a sustained attack, you used your shod feet and it was late at night.”