An attacker who left a Falmouth businessman in a pool of his own blood has been brought to justice five years after the assault.

The victims of Robert Balloch - who fled to Spain to avoid standing trial for affray - said they felt they had been serving a sentence in the years following the brutal attack, but they now feel justice has been served after he was jailed for nine and a half years.

Balloch was one of two men who left businessman Paul Rutter with a face full of shattered bones after setting on him outside a Falmouth pub, with his wife fearing he had been killed and doctors saying he could have sustained brain damage from being kicked so hard. Mr Rutter needed reconstructive surgery to his face, jaw and nose, with titanium plates and screws attaching his cheekbones, and will never regain feeling in most of his face.

His wife, Sarah Rutter, said: "We feel like we have been the ones that have had the sentence, because for the last five years we haven't been able to move on with our life.

"We have been constantly asked by our friends and family 'when will we get closure' and it's always been something that has been so much up in the air."

Mr Rutter still has no feeling in the centre of his face, his nose, or his top lip, and his wife said that the lasting effects of the attack were something that the judge took into account when he delivered his sentence.

"He said the extent of the injuries were some of the worst he had seen in 40 years," said Mrs Rutter.

She added: "The physical side is something you have to live with, you have no choice, but the emotional side has been most difficult.

"It was an open wound that would never seem to be able to heal.

"We feel that now we will be able to start to get closure, and things will definitely start to heal. We haven't got it hanging over us all the time."

Balloch was 21 when he and a then-18-year-old man attacked Mr Rutter after Mrs Rutter accidentally dropped a drink and splashed a woman in a bar, who then became upset.

As people stepped in the Rutters decided to leave but they were surrounded in the street and Mr Rutter was punched to the ground before the attack worsened, with Balloch kicking him in the face.

The other man was found guilty of affray in December 2013, and given 140 hours of community service and a six-month prison suspended prison sentence, but Balloch absconded before he could be brought to trial to face charges of grievous bodily harm.

Balloch, 26, formerly of Truro, has now been found guilty of affray and wounding with intent, and was sentenced on Thursday to nine years and six months imprisonment.

Mr and Mrs Rutter said: "We feel our case will put the right message out there proving that such violent crimes will not be tolerated and anyone that commits such vicious attacks will be arrested and face a substantial prison sentence."

They added that they would like to recognise how hard everyone has worked in a very difficult case, giving special thanks to Detective Sergeant Al Jordan and the prosecution QC Mr Philip Lee, as well as the witnesses who came forward and gave evidence, who played a major part in getting the conviction.