THIS is the face of a man who was brutally kicked by a group of men in a vicious, cowardly attack.

Dan Rush was left battered and bruised after the unprovoked assault at his pub, the Chestnut, last Saturday night.

The 27-year-old suffered a fractured jaw, serious bruising and a badly bloodshot eye from the attack, which happened shortly after 9.30pm. “The group turned up originally in a stretch hummer,” said Mr Rush, joint licensee of the Chestnut pub, in Lansdowne Road, Worcester. “There were about 15 to 20 of them in the mixed group, aged 18 to early 20s. They started blocking off the entrance [to the pub], so I had a word saying there was a smoking shelter. When I went out to collect glasses they were drinking their own drinks so I asked them to move on.”

But the group didn’t go, with about half remaining in the doorway of the pub trying to shelter from the rain while waiting for their taxi.

“I went out there then and said I’d had enough and it was time for them to head off,” Mr Rush said.

“At that point, they started to get angry.” One of the group refused to leave, Mr Rush said, and he was forced to try and usher them out, which is when the violence started. “I turned around and somebody hit me from behind, then he hit me from the front, then I fell on to the floor and got my kicking,” he said.

“I thought, ‘I have to get up otherwise I am not going to get up’. “I was trying to protect my head but that was the area they were going for.” Fellow licensee, Colin Robinson, was serving in the pub when he noticed what was happening. He said the attack lasted about 30 seconds before he went out and the group ran off into a waiting taxi.

“When I got up I couldn’t see out of my one eye,” Mr Rush added.

Despite taking quite a beating, Mr Rush managed to get a photo of the departing taxi’s number plate and described one of the men who attacked him. He is said to have short, ginger hair, gelled up at the front and was wearing dark trousers and a grey top. Mr Rush is now recovering.

Contact West Mercia Police on 101, quoting reference number 717s of October 26.