A couple have been ordered to pay compensation to a pub customer who they dragged into the street and attacked.

Exeter Crown Court heard that Anne Holland had a long-standing grudge against the victim and set on him as he was minding his own business in the Three Tuns pub in Honiton.

Her partner Dominic Greenhalgh joined her in the sustained assault in which the victim was headbutted, kicked and left with two chipped teeth.

He had a job interview the next day and did not get the post because he turned up with his face battered and bruised.

The attack started in the pub before he was manhandled into the yard. He made it back inside but was dragged out again so the violence could resume.

Regulars at the High Street pub were so shocked that one recorded part of the attack on her phone and another bystander was overheard saying they should go to jail for it.

Holland, aged 27, and Greenhalgh, aged 31, both of Bennett Square, Exeter, admitted causing actual bodily harm and were jailed for a year, suspended for two years, by Judge Peter Johnson at Exeter Crown Court.

They were both ordered to do 120 hours unpaid community work and pay a total of £1,500 compensation.

He told them: “You both played a full part in this sustained and vicious attack. When he managed to get back inside the pub, the attack continued while members of the public were enjoying a drink.

“You set about assaulting him again, including kicks to the head and body. Mercifully, his injuries were relatively slight but it clearly could have been much worse.”

The judge said he was suspending the sentence because both had good previous records and both had family responsibilities. He was also swayed by Court of Appeal guidance to use immediate custody as a last resort during lockdown.

Tom Faulkner, prosecuting, said the attack happened at around 2pm on September 11, 2019, when the victim and the defendants happened to be in the same pub at the same time.

Greenhalgh was talking amicably with the victim but advised him he should consider leaving because of the animosity felt to him by Holland and her family.

At some point she arrived and headbutted him before the fight moved to the yard where the victim was punched and kicked to the head and body.

He made it back to the refuge of the bar but was dragged out again and the attack resumed with nine kicks captured on CCTV.

He suffered two chipped teeth which cost £700 to repair and lost a job which he had hoped to start the next day.

Herc Ashworth, for Holland, said she has no record of violence and behaved out of character. There was a background of previous verbal altercations between the victim and her disabled father.

He said she has joint care of an eight-year-old child and has been looking after her father while he has been shielding at home during the lockdown.

Heather Hope, for Greenhalgh, said he is a hard-working plumber and family man who provides for two children from an earlier relationship.

She said he became involved in the violence out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to his partner.