TWO men who were part of a gang that attacked a man in a brutal Hogmanay murder bid had their jail sentences cut today (Tuesday).

A third attacker had his sentence of detention quashed and was given a non-custodial disposal.

Their victim Rhys Reynolds, 26, was chased by a pack of pursuers and, after he stumbled, was attacked with knives, a pole and a rock or paving slab.

He was also repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on during the attack in Delta Drive, Musselburgh.

He suffered 36 injuries including multiple wounds and facial fractures as well as bleeding to the brain following the assault on December 31, 2018.

Five attackers were originally convicted of attempting to murder Mr Reynolds, with a sixth acquitted of the murder bid but found guilty of assaulting him.

They were sentenced to a total of 47 years at the High Court in Edinburgh last year after the trial judge, Gordon Liddle, condemned the "cowardly and vicious assault".

But three of the attackers have successfully appealed against the sentences imposed on them claiming that they were excessive.

Aaron Thomson (pictured below), 20, and Dean Riding, 22, were originally jailed for 10 and eight years respectively, but saw their sentences reduced to six and five years by appeal judges.

East Lothian Courier:

Lord Glennie, sitting with Lord Turnbull, also wiped out further three-year periods of supervision imposed on them.

A third man, Jayson Dodds, 19, who was acquitted of the attempted murder but found guilty of assault to injury, will now be freed after his four-year jail term was quashed.

The judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that he should carry out 150 hours of unpaid work under a community payback order.

The attack occurred after a disturbance at a flat in Musselburgh involving the victim and part of the subsequent chase and murder bid was shown to jurors during an earlier trial.

Lorenzo Alonzi, counsel for Riding, told the appeal judges that he was still a young man who had experienced a difficult upbringing but had expressed remorse for the offence.

James Wallace, for Thomson, said that but for "the aggressive actings" of the victim the incident would not have occurred.

Defence counsel Jonathan Crowe, for Dodds, said he had played a very restricted role in the attack and argued that the judge was excessive in his approach.

It was argued in the appeal that the sentencing judge had failed to take proper account of the age of the accused and their troubled backgrounds.