TWO MEN who set upon a cyclist changing his tyre and assaulted him in an unprovoked attack have been jailed.

Thomasz Gumulka had been cycling home through Didcot in March when he discovered his tyre was punctured, a court heard.

Prosecutor Isabel Delamere told Oxford Crown Court yesterday that while Mr Gumulka was mending it in Station Road two men came towards him.

Miss Delamere said the two men were Ryan Ingram and Martin Rendell and one of them pulled Mr Gumulka’s trousers down before they attacked him. She added: “He was then punched by both men, knocked to the floor and was kicked on the floor.

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“He covered his face, then Mr Rendell began stamping on his bike and threw it in the bushes.

“When Mr Gumulka tried to get hold of his telephone Mr Rendell took his bag and threw it on to the railway tracks.

“It was a sustained and repeated assault on the same victim.

“There doesn’t appear to be any reason for it at all.”

The court heard Mr Gumulka suffered reddening and grazing to his head, and swelling to his eye and face.

Rendell, 25 of Prestwick Burn, Didcot, and 22-year-old Ingram, of The Oval, Didcot, both admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Rendell also admitted criminal damage to Mr Gumulka’s bike.

Claire Fraser, defending Rendell, said her client had shown remorse and wanted to get out of prison to see his young son.

She added: “He absolutely wishes it hadn’t happened.

“He is absolutely fed up of coming before the courts, he is fed up of being in custody and he wants to start afresh. He is very keen to come back into society, secure employment and spend time with his son.”

Peter Gotch, defending Ingram, appealed for his client to be given a community order or suspended sentence.

He said: “He has accepted what he has done, he has expressed remorse, he is ashamed of what he has done.”

Mr Gotch said Ingram, an asbestos remover, had reacted in an “over the top” way during the “disgraceful and unpleasant” attack.

Jailing them both for 18 months, Judge Zoe Smith said the pair had used “gratuitous” violence against Mr Gumulka and added: “You saw this as an opportunity to engage in gratuitous violence.

“He was punched, he was kicked, it must have been a terribly frightening incident for him.”

But because Rendell had been in custody since the attack in March, Judge Smith said the sentence would mean he would be released almost immediately.