THE family of a young man who suffered serious facial injuries after what they say was a savage and unprovoked attack are furious at the Crown Prosecution Service for dropping charges against his alleged attacker without consulting them.

Benjamin Lumbard, 24, was expecting to go to court on June25 to give evidence against a soldier who had been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on him in an incident dating from July 12 last year.

Mr Lumbard, of Sycamore Drive, Aylesford, said he had arrived in the V-Bar in Maidstone's High Street with his girlfriend only a few minutes earlier but when he approached the bar to order drinks, a man swung at him punching him five times in the face in a completely unprovoked attack.

Mr Lumbard subsequently attended Maidstone Hospital where staff discovered that his cheek bone had been broken in four places. He was transferred to East Grinstead Hospital where a metal plate and four pins were inserted in his face, which he will now carry for the rest of his life.

Mr Lumbard said he did not know his attacker. Others in the pub identified the alleged assailant, who was later arrested by police and on November 11 was charged with causing grievous bodily harm. However, three days before the trial, the police rang Mr Lumbard to say that the CPS had dropped the case.

Four days later, Mr Lumbard, a welder at Laddingford Engineering, received a letter from Claire Moulsher, senior crown prosecutor, confirming that the case had been dropped because the people in the pub who had named the alleged attacker were not willing to appear in court to give evidence or to make a statement to the police. Without their testimony, she said, there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

But Mr Lumbard's mother, Sally Lumbard, said: "We are furious. Ben said he couldn't have identified his attacker, but his girlfriend said she could, but she was never asked to. As far as we knew, everything was going fine. Now it seems this man has completely got away with it."

Police spokeswoman Gianna Pollero said they were confident that they had sufficient evidence to charge the alleged offender, however, decisions on whether to proceed with a prosecution were entirely in the domain of the CPS. She confirmed that the police where not now looking for anyone else in connection with the assault.

No one from the CPS was available to comment.