A VIOLENT thug jailed for stamping on a man's head after a row outside a pub has failed in an appeal court bid to clear his name.

Justin Hayes (25), of Highfield Road, Amesbury, was jailed for two years at Salisbury Crown Court in May this year, after he had been convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, sitting with Mr Justice Forbes and Judge Roberts QC at London's Court of Appeal, rejected arguments that the trial judge had allowed the prosecution to put inadmissible evidence before the jury - and dismissed Hayes's appeal.

The judge said Hayes had been on a night out at the Bell pub in Amesbury, when he saw a man and a woman arguing in the garden. He went over to see what was happening and - according to his version of events - stepped in as the man was about to strike the woman.

It was Hayes's case that the man then punched him in the face and ran away, eventually tripping up and hitting his face and head on the ground.

However, this version of events was rejected by the jury, which found Hayes had "repeatedly" stamped on his victim's head as he lay prone on the ground.

As for the victim, the judge said he had drunk seven pints of beer and "could remember virtually nothing" from the time he left the pub to when he woke up in the hospital with a four-inch laceration to his forehead.

Eyewitness accounts of the attack suggested that the victim and the woman were indeed arguing, but that Hayes then threw a bottle at the man. They said he then started chasing his victim and the next thing they saw was Hayes stamping on his head.

There was evidence that Hayes was later "bragging" about what he had done, the judge added.

Hayes's lawyers argued that his conviction was unsafe, as the trial judge had allowed inadmissible evidence - in the shape of a letter from Hayes's solicitors saying he would plead guilty to a lesser charge of assault - to be read out to the jury.

However, dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Scott Baker said: "We cannot see there was any unfairness to Hayes in the admission of this evidence into the trial. There is no substance in this appeal and it must be dismissed."