A pair of muggers who left their victim blind in one eye after a vicious and unprovoked attack in Golders Green will be sentenced on Friday.

Kembo Didonga, 21, and Placide Kamwiziku, 18, assaulted a 37-year-old man with a plank of wood as he walked along The Ridgeway on January 13.

The victim, a husband and father, was travelling home from work shortly after midnight when he was hit on the back of the head with the makeshift weapon.

As he turned around, he was struck in the face with such force that the blow fractured his cheekbone and ruptured his right eye.

The attackers struggled with the injured man as they grabbed his shoulder bag before fleeing the scene when two passing motorists came to help the victim.

Police were called and paramedics arrived to treat the man, who was left covered in blood and in such a state of distress he was unable to speak.

Officers were able to trace the pair through a tracking device fixed to the victim’s iPad, which was in the stolen shoulder bag.

Minutes after the assault, the tracker located the device at West Hampstead tube station and when police arrived, Didonga and Kamwiziku were still on the platform. They were arrested at 12.30am.

Despite initially denying both possession of the iPad and knowing each other, the pair pleaded guilty after CCTV footage showed them with blood on their clothes after the assault and entering the train station together.

Didonga, of no fixed abode, and Kamwiziku, of Streamside Close, Edmonton Green, will now be sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court after entering their guilty plea on March 2.

Lead officer in the case Detective Constable Nick Harvey said: “This was a vicious and unprovoked attack on an innocent member of the public. Kamwiziku and Didonga used an excessive level of violence just to steal an iPad and the fact that such violent robberies are rare just highlights the dangerousness of these two men.

“I would like to thank the two members of the public who came to the victim’s assistance that evening. Their efforts enabled the victim to receive the urgent medical care he needed and their quick response ensured that key evidence was not lost and enabled the police to quickly identify the culprits.”