TWO thugs who poured boiling water on a man and attacked him with a knife were jailed for a total of 12 years yesterday.

Carl Smedley, 37, was locked up for seven years, and accomplice David Hepple, 40, was sentenced to five for the "horrific and unprovoked" assault on Norman Heels during a row over missing lager.

Police last night welcomed the sentences as a clear message from the courts that violence would not be tolerated.

Mr Heels, 27, spent three weeks in hospital undergoing skin grafts and an operation on three broken knuckles.

Police said he would be scarred for life by the scalding, and had lost the use of two of his fingers.

After the case, Detective Constable Eamonn Clarke said: "It was a horrific and unprovoked attack, which resulted in serious injury to the victim, and the sentences reflect the injuries he sustained, which he will carry with him for the rest of his life."

The jury at Teesside Crown Court found both men guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent at the end of a week-long trial.

Mr Heels had been drinking in Hepple's former flat in Barnard Castle, County Durham, with Hepple's son, when he was set upon by the defendants, who returned from a night out.

Hepple, of Chestnut Avenue, Spennymoor, County Durham, accused the pair of stealing lager from the fridge, poured boiling water from a kettle over Mr Heels, who was then hit about the body with an implement, believed to be a hammer. A knife was used by Smedley, of Commercial Street, Crook, County Dur-ham, to stab him in the hand.

A kitchen carpet covered in Mr Heels' blood was put in a skip the next day.