A couple have been jailed over a savage attack on a man in Maidenhead, in which they pummelled him with their fists and clubbed him with a metal fence post.

Sonia Davison and Luke Wetherall - both aged 39 - appeared at Reading Crown Court on Monday (February 5).

The couple, of Phipps Close in Maidenhead, both pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent, after assaulting a man over a minor insult.

The court heard that, on November 4 last year, the defendants overheard a phone conversation between their victim and another man.

In the call, the victim referred to the couple as a pair of "skanks" - sending them into a fit of rage. They went to an address in Foliejohn Way, where Wetherall took a metal fence post from outside the property.

Davison went inside, where she found the victim and repeatedly struck him with her fists.

By his own account, Wetherall heard the commotion from outside, and, believing his partner had been attacked, came in brandishing the fence post.

Other people were present in the house at the time.

One of them recalled that Wetherall swung the post against the victim, delivering a 'proper wallop'.

The court heard how Davison took the man's phone off him so that he could not call for help.

She then offered him crack cocaine, in what Judge Heather Norton described as a bid to prevent him from contacting the authorities.

Sentencing the pair yesterday, the judge said the victim was left with "significant" injuries, including a bone fracture behind his right eye socket.

In a statement read out in court, the victim said: "I have been impacted negatively a great deal, and my confidence is shot to pieces. I no longer feel safe socialising with people, and try to keep away from them."

It is understood that Davison and Wetherall are drug addicts, who were under the influence at the time of the attack.

Judge Norton remarked that they both have extensive criminal histories - and noted that Davison had a "large number" of convictions for violent offences.

She jailed Wetherall for three years and seven months, and Davison for one year and 10 months. They will each serve half of their sentences before being released.