A THUG left a soldier’s wife scarred for life after viciously attacking her at a birthday party brawl while her brother battered her with a crutch.

Chloe Evans, 24, brutally kicked Ruth Tinsley in a cowardly assault as the victim tried to pull her off her stricken husband Mark during a chaotic melee.

The violence erupted outside the Greyhound pub in Saughall, near Chester, as Mrs Tinsley and her husband Mark attended a friend’s 70th birthday party.

Prosecutor Catherine Elvin told Chester Crown Court that tensions flared after Evans’s brother, Charlie, 23, and her boyfriend, Marcus Kennedy, 27, approached fellow guest David Jones.

When told to “get lost”, Charlie Evans responded with threats before launching a physical attack that knocked Mr Jones unconscious.

When Mr Tinsley stepped in to protect Mr Jones, he was forced to the ground and set upon by all three younger defendants.

Credit analyst Chloe Evans and aerospace worker Kennedy rained down punches and kicks, the court heard.

Mrs Tinsley bravely intervened to pull Chloe Evans off her husband, admitting she struck her and pulled her hair in the process.

Cowardly Evans retaliated by kicking Mrs Tinsley, while vile Charlie Evans – who had a leg injury – began beating her with his crutch which he used as a weapon.

Witnesses described the vile yob as behaving “like a crazed animal” while “waving” his crutch around during the attack.

Mrs Tinsley was knocked unconscious and suffered a four-centimetre wound to her nose that exposed the underlying bone, requiring 14 stitches.

She has been left with a deep, permanent scar.

Mr Tinsley, a military veteran who suffers from PTSD, sustained a wound to his nose that required clinical glue after the cowardly assault.

He later said the attack had heightened his condition and that the harm caused to his wife made him feel “sick to his stomach”.

David Jones, who had been attending the party with his wife and daughter, was knocked unconscious in the melee and needed three staples to stitch a head wound.

Evans, who studied at Reaseheath College and Aberystwyth University, was appointed chair of Chester Young Farmers three months after the assault, later serving as vice treasurer.

Appearing at Chester Crown Court, Chloe Evans and Kennedy, of Connah’s Quay, Flintshire, admitted affray.

Both received five-month prison sentences, suspended for 18 months, with Evans ordered to complete 40 hours of unpaid work and Kennedy 80 hours.

Charlie Evans admitted affray and three counts of unlawful wounding.

He was handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for two years, and 150 hours of unpaid work.

All three were placed under a two-year restraining order.

The court heard the trio only submitted guilty pleas after Judge Steven Everett indicated they would avoid immediate custody following positive pre-sentence reports.

Sentencing, Judge Everett called the brawl an “unpleasant, ugly drunken incident” that resulted in a “really nasty” permanent injury for Mrs Tinsley.

Addressing the defendants, the judge added: “The reality is wherever there are problems you just walk away, you do not get involved in this type of drunken ugly incident.

“I am rather hoping that this is your first and last time in court.”