Two men have been jailed for a total of 40 months after they assaulted a third man with cricket stumps following Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.

Osman Akhtar and Mohammed Jansher Khan's victim needed emergency surgery for a blood clot in his head following the attack. 21-year-old Farhan Iqbal’s jaw was also broken in two places.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday, Judge Roger Craik QC rejected defence pleas to spare 22-year-old Akhtar and 21-year-old Khan jail sentences, saying the type of behaviour they had shown had to be "discouraged".

He sentenced first offender Akhtar to 19 months imprisonment and his co-accused, who has previous convictions, to 21 months in jail, telling them: "On any view this was a disgraceful incident in a very public place on a very public occasion."

Khan and Akhtar beat Mr Iqbal with their makeshift weapons on January 1 last year in Edinburgh's Market Street. Khan, of Minto Street and Khan, of Craigour Terrace, both Edinburgh, were originally charged with attempting to murder their victim, but were convicted of the lesser offence of serious assault.

Mr Craik said the allegations of causing the injury which almost killed Mr Iqbal had not been found proven against the pair and the serious injury must refer to the broken jaw he sustained.

The judge said that although Akhtar had never been in trouble before, he seemed to have been "a leading light" in the incident and had been prepared to make use of a cricket stump in an attack which he knew would be violent.

The court heard that Akhtar had been punched by another man earlier in the evening which had left them "raging". Police were told he wanted to go back to the Market Street area to "sort things out".  A car window had also been smashed before the attack occurred.

A passerby also told police he had seen a group hitting a man repeatedly as he lay on the ground trying to protect his head.

The group eventually ran off when another witness started screaming.