AN innocent man was stamped on and kicked senseless by two violent attackers who simply stood around laughing when emergency crews arrived.

Police who were called to the house could not understand what was so funny about a pile of clothes the pair were looking at - until they heard groans.

The garments covered the badly beaten victim who suffered severe brain damage, blood clots and swelling inside his skull in the brutal assault in April.

The man had both cheek bones fractured, eyes so badly battered he could not open them, still suffers memory loss and panic attacks and needs more scans.

Evaldas Tamosiunas and Rimantas Janavicius were jailed for eleven-and-a-half years at Teesside Crown Court for inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent.

The Lithuanians - one who had only been in the UK for a week - shared a house with three fellow countrymen in Colville Street, Middlesbrough.

They had all been drinking along with the victim when an argument seems to have started over vodka and who had been smoking whose cigarettes, the court heard.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told the pair that neither had shown remorse for the "gratuitous and lengthy" attack which he said they "enjoyed and relished".

Another man who called into the house for a cigarette was blamed by the defendants for the assault, but the court heard that he was the one who dialled 999.

Judge Bourne-Arton said he "utterly rejected" the claims, and said after 35-year-old Janavicius stood trial that he found the man a credible witness.

He told the pair: "The fact that you blamed that man - the Crown's main witness - shows that both of you have little or no remorse for what you have done.

"The two of you assaulted him over a significant period of time . . . there were times when you stopped assaulting him, and again you continued."

Tamosiunas, 27, who was said to have started the violence, pleaded guilty to the charge three days before the trial was due to begin last month.

The judge told them: "The forensic evidence against you was compelling. You both carried out a kicking and stamping assault to vulnerable parts - head and face.

"At the time, you enjoyed and relished that which you were doing. You were both laughing about what you had done. When the police came, you were still laughing.

"When he was unconscious, covered by clothing, you continued to laugh, drink and smoke. It was a joint attack, and an aggravating feature you were both drunk.

"He was in hospital for three weeks. He still bears the effect of your attack. He still requires hospital treatment, and he is psychologically damaged."

Zoe Passfield, for Tamosiunas, and Tom Mitchell, for Janavicius, accepted it was a serious offence, and the only mitigation was neither men had a criminal record.