BROTHERS who punched their victim to the ground 'like a sack of potatoes' after they were caught urinating in an alleyway have been locked up.

Sam and Steven Thomas simultaneously hit Geoffrey Taylor after a clash at a town festival, leaving him unconscious with two fractures to his cheekbone.

Their father cried out 'see ya boys' before storming out of the public gallery in a fit of rage as the pair left the dock to start their nine-month prison stint on Thursday.

Jailing the pair at Oxford Crown Court, Deputy Circuit Judge Patrick Eccles QC condemned the siblings for failing to walk away from the quarrel, which began after their were spotted urinating near a Woodstock pub.

He deemed their behaviour 'disgusting' and 'provocative', telling them he was not surprised that a father walking past with his children 'remonstrated' with them before 64-year-old Mr Taylor jumped to the passerby's aid.

Deputy Circuit Judge Eccles added: "It was simply a vast disproportion and unforgivable reaction to turn on Mr Taylor and both of you to punch him at the same time. It all happened so quickly that it seems to me that it was not an occasion for either of you to react in the way that you did.

"He was simply no match, if a couple of men like you, decided on a spur of the moment, and in anger, to punch him."

Prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the court the passerby with his partner and two children in High Street, Woodstock, when he spotted the brothers urinating.

Many families were in the street after leaving festival Woodstock Live at about 10.30pm on August 29 last year, she added.

An argument brewed between the trio before the passerby's partner cried out for help, alerting Mr Taylor who was at a bar across the road.

Mr Taylor rushed over to the dispute before the pair punched him, leaving him with grazes to his face and jaw, and needing an operation to fit a metal plate in his cheekbone.

Both defendants, who must pay a victim surcharge, denied attacking the victim during police interview but later admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm at court.

Lucy Tapper, defending Sam Thomas, claimed he would become 'particularly vulnerable' behind bars as he suffers significantly with anxiety and depression.

The 25-year-old, of The Beeches, Old London Road, Chipping Norton, has also suffered racism and bullying throughout his life because of the family's Romani Gypsy background, she said.

Sam Thomas, who was planning to go to a family party with his brother on the night of the attack, was not 'looking for trouble', the barrister claimed.

Peter Du Feu, defending Steven Thomas, said he was acting as the 'good Samaritan' when he tried to push his brother away from the dispute before punches were thrown.

The 35-year-old 'peacemaker', of Cockshoot Close, Stonesfield, Witney, has spent his life 'turning the other cheek' but the pair were triggered by something during the dispute, he added.