A BRUTAL man who left his victims hospitalised after a series of unprovoked attacks has been caged for eight years

In just eight days Michael Sadler punched, kicked and battered his victims just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The 21-year-old even forced a milk float off Runcorn's expressway and battered the 57-year-old driver with a baseball bat.

On Friday Sadler, of The Calvers, Halton Brook, was sentenced to eight years by Judge David Hale.

He told Sadler: 'You were doing it for your own pleasure. For laughs.'

The court heard the attacks left Sadler's victims afraid to go out and milkman David Badger had been forced to retire.

On April 4 this year David McKeown, 24, and Alan Kelly were set on by Sadler and two other yobs. Both were kicked and punched in the head in Bridge Street, Runcorn. They needed treatment and stitches to their wounds.

The following day a man was shot with a paintball gun belonging to Sadler in Regent Street.

On April 17, Ian Williams, his wife Chandra, 36, and James Hill were attacked in Heath Road after a night at the Cherry Tree pub. Mr Williams had to lie on top of his wife to protect her from Sadler's boots.

However, she still received a broken ankle in the attack and the two men needed hospital treatment and stitches. Mr Williams, 36, also had broken ribs and a fracture to his hand. Mr Hill, 30, was kicked unconscious.

Two days later Jeffrey Holden, 23, was beaten and kicked by Sadler as he walked to his home in Castlefields.

Half an hour later, Sadler attacked milkman Mr Badger on Runcorn's expressway. Mr Badger was smashed across the head with a baseball bat.

The following day, Sadler's car was searched by police while parked at a petrol station on Bridge Street. Inside officers found 384 ecstasy tablets, a paintball gun, a set of knuckle dusters, two mobile phones, a passport and a blood-stained baseball bat. DNA tests revealed that the blood on the bat belonged to Mr Badger.

Sadler was charged with the possession of drugs and illegal weapons and released on police bail.

However, two months later he was involved in an assault on two security men guarding Runcorn's Brindley arts centre. One guard was stabbed in the leg and another battered by Sadler with a claw hammer.

Robert Colinski, defending, claimed his client, who admitted all the offences, suffered a reaction to drugs prescribed for depression at the time.