A judge has branded members of a seven-strong gang who set upon an innocent family man “a pack of jackals”.

Richard Taylor, of Shipley, was chased, punched and kicked after he was targeted when walking home with a takeaway meal, Bradford Crown Court heard.

He was a complete stranger to his assailants who surrounded and attacked him for no reason, prosecutor Peter Hampton said.

In the dock was the only gang member to face justice for the attack in Bradford Road, Shipley, at 10pm on June 18 last year.

Wasim Hussain, 21, of Oakroyd Terrace, Manningham, Bradford, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Taylor, who is in his 40s, and causing him actual bodily harm.

He was locked up for ten months by Judge Roger Scott who said such attacks made people fearful of going out.

The judge said Mr Taylor should have been “totally safe from a pack of jackals like you”.

The court heard Hussain was convicted of affray in October last year after he and five others attacked a man outside a nightclub in very similar circumstances.

Mr Hampton said Mr Taylor saw Hussain and six other youths drinking and shouting in the street. He was punched to the floor and kicked as he lay on the ground.

He escaped the gang but they pursued him, knocked him down again and stamped on him.

Mr Taylor was treated in hospital for cuts, grazes and a missing tooth.

Hussain, who was drunk on vodka, pleaded guilty to hitting Mr Taylor, who picked him out as a ringleader who chased him down the road.

Hussain denied attacking Mr Taylor after he went to the ground.

Simon Myers, Hussain’s barrister, said he was drinking excessively at the time.

He was very unhappy in an arranged marriage and hanging round with friends who led him into trouble, he said.

Hussain was now a father and had kept out of trouble for 12 months, said Mr Myers.