A THUG beat a man in a Derby street more than 50 times in "54 seconds of madness" during a "sustained and powerful attack".
The horrific CCTV footage broadcast at Derby Crown Court shows Gavin Dunnicliffe sometimes hold the weapon with both hands during the almost minute long assault on his victim.
The attack left the man with lacerations to his head, a broken arm and fingers and cuts to his legs and back.
It was so brutal that police originally charged Dunnicliffe with attempted murder.
But the charge was downscaled to causing grievous bodily harm with intent which the 30-year-old, of Ashbourne Road, Derby, admitted. Watch the video here BUT PLEASE BE WARNED THAT IT IS OF A HIGHLY GRAPHIC NATURE AND SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND IT UPSETTING. The victim, however, has agreed for it to be used.
Jailing him for six years Judge John Burgess said: "You told police the weapon was a length of rubber or plastic piping.
"If that had been a metal bar this man would be dead and you would be facing a murder charge.
"What you did that night was quite terrible, a sustained and powerful attack and as we saw on the CCTV sometimes you were holding that weapon with both hands.
"He suffered serious injuries which saw him stay in hospital for three days and then there are the mental scars he has suffered.
"This offence involved a degree of planning and it involved the use of a weapon.
"It was a sustained assault."
Mark Van Der Zwart, prosecuting, said the attack happened shortly before midnight on December 15 last year.
He told the court how Dunnicliffe was then in a relationship with a woman who had previously been a partner with the 47-year-old taxi driver victim.
Mr Van Der Zwart said the victim had been drinking in the White Swan and then the Half Moon, both in Littleover and that Dunnicliffe had been in both pubs asking locals if they had seen the victim.
He said: "The victim went to the Yaadgaar (corr) takeaway in Littleover and left shortly before midnight.
"The defendant followed him on to South Avenue where the attack took place.
"In a victim impact statement the victim tells how he has been left with a visible dent in his head from his injury and that he suffers flashbacks.
"He feels on edge and there are mental scars."
Alwyn Jones, for Dunnicliffe, said his client "wholeheartedly accepts what he did was wrong" and that it was "unforgiveable and atrocious".
Mr Jones said: "He knows he must suffer for the 54 seconds of madness we have seen on the screen.
"His progress, during his time in custody, shows that as and when the prison gates open he has the potential to be a valuable member of society."
At the same hearing Jade Austin, 19, of North Road, Westclifdf-on-Sea, Essex, was handed a seven-month sentence in a young offenders institute, suspended for 18 months, after pleading guilty to assisting an offender.
The hearing heard how she is the daughter of Dunnicliffe's then partner and sent him a text message showing a photograph of the victim while he was looking for him in the two pubs.
Judge Burgess also ordered the teenager to undertake 180 hours unpaid work.
He said: "No-one is entitled to take the law into their own hands, that way anarchy begins."
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