A thug has been jailed for seven years for a vicious gang attack in which a former friend’s jaw was broken.

Andre Warner was naked taking a shower at his house in Rainham when Justin Burr and others burst in.

Plates had to be inserted in his jaw and he now has loss of sensation in his face.

Mr Warner said for a short time in 2011 he and childhood pal Burr, a taxi driver, shared a house and were supposed to share the costs.

“I jumped up and knocked the knife out of his hand and grabbed him. I was slipping and sliding and received some blows” - Andre Warner

“It didn’t take long before I was paying all the rent,” he told Maidstone Crown Court.

Burr left and he did not receive the money he was owed.

On New Year’s Day last year he was at home with friend Michael Fletcher when he went to his bathroom for a shower.

“I looked up and saw Justin coming towards me with a knife,” he continued. “He said I owed him money. As he came in the bathroom there were two other guys behind him.

“I jumped up and knocked the knife out of his hand and grabbed him. I was slipping and sliding and received some blows.”

One of the other men took a knuckleduster from his pocket and punched him, breaking his jaw and splitting his nose.

“I don’t know how but I managed to get out of the bathroom and down the stairs,” he said. “I ran out through the front door. I was still naked.

“Four men got out of a taxi and kept punching me all over my body.”

Mr Fletcher was chased up the road as beer glasses were thrown at him.

He returned holding a house brick and the men then jumped into the taxi and drove off.

Burr, of High Street, Chatham, denied causing grievous harm with intent but was convicted.

He claimed he was the one who was attacked. Mr Warner, he said, lunged at him in the bathroom.

“He put his fingers as far as he could into my eye sockets,” he said. “I remember screaming and then someone came in and hit him.”

Passing sentence, Recorder Marie-Claire Bleasedale said Burr tried to blame the victim.

“This was a sustained and brutal assault for which you were wholly responsible,” she added.