DRUG-FUELLED thugs who burst into a man's home and attacked him with wooden bats because he interfered in one of their love lives were jailed for eight years.

Carl Cserfalvi-Young and Alan Evans stormed into Damien Grove's flat in Faygate Way, Lower Earley, because Mr Groves had been talking to Evans' girlfriend.

Once inside, they attacked him with a baseball bat and a wooden truncheon, leaving Mr Young with significant injuries and cuts to his head.

Deputy circuit judge Roger Chapple heard how Mr Groves had been "making a nuisance" and that the defendants wanted to teach him a lesson in January last year.

However, the pair were convicted of a single count of aggravated burglary and jailed for eight years at Reading Crown Court.

The judge said: "Shortly after 5am you both went to the home of Damien Groves to teach him a very firm lesson.

"You were both armed, one with a baseball bat and one with a wooden truncheon.

"You beat him to re-enforce a message that the relationship between him and Anna Johnson was well and truly over."

The court heard how Mr Groves needed stitches and suffered a "golf ball sized lump to his head" as a result of the brutal attack.

The judge added: "He was absolutely terrified by what you did.

"You attacked Mr Groves in his own home. It is the one place where he should feel safe.

"You had both taken substantial quantities of alcohol and added drugs to the mix."

Gavin Holme, defending, Cserfalvi-Young, 37, of The Meadway, Tilehurst, said his client suffered from mental health problems after he lost his driving licence and his job in 2010.

He added: "This was not a pre-meditated attack.

"It was more of a spur of the moment type of offence."

John Lyons, defending 29-year-old Evans, of Staverton Road, Reading, said: "This is a man with significant personal problems.

"It is unlikely that this man will ever find himself back in front of the courts for an offence of violence."