Two men who stabbed, bit and robbed a student before kidnapping him during a terrifying and evil ordeal in Oxford were today starting long prison terms.

Dean Coulling, 21 and Vincent Wray, 26, admitted carrying out the unprovoked attack on James Halstead on October 8 last year.

Mr Halstead, of St Hugh's College, Oxford, was drinking with friends in the Bubbly Bar, Park End Street. Coulling asked to borrow the student's mobile phone but then left the bar.

Mr Halstead followed and the two men threatened him with a knife and forced him down a pathway near Upper Fisher Row where they demanded cash and credit cards.

Coulling said to Halstead: "I dare you to make a noise. If you try to struggle, you see what happens to you."

Wray said: "I want everything -- your phone, watch, pin numbers and cards."

Mr Halstead handed over his possessions before trying to escape, but slipped and fell into the canal. When he swam to the bank his attackers were waiting for him.

While Wray, of Cowley Road, went to a cash point, Coulling of no fixed abode, stabbed Mr Halstead with a four-inch knife, bit his ear, punched him in the head and called him a "rich bitch". Brendan Davis, prosecuting, said Coulling told the student: "I will happily kill you and dump your body in the canal. I am already looking at six years I will do another nine for you."

Wray returned in a taxi and they shoved Mr Halstead inside before dumping him at an industrial estate off the A34. He was picked up by police at about 3am and needed eight stitches for stab wounds in his thigh, chest and back.

Mr Davis said Mr Halstead had been deeply traumatised by the incident, which had affected his studies and taken away part of his respect for Oxford.

Peter Coombe, defending Coulling, said it was a shocking episode and his client was very remorseful.

He said Coulling had a history of drug and alcohol problems but was a changed man.

Jennifer Edwards, defending Wray, said her client had never done anything like this before. She said Wray was sorry for his actions.

Judge Hall told the defendants: "The real evil in what you did that night is the sustained nature of the violence you used. It doesn't need much imagination to know what a terrible experience it must have been for him."

Coulling was jailed for six-and-a-half years for robbery, six-and-a-half years for kidnap and two-and-a-half years for grievous bodily harm to run concurrently.

Wray was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for robbery and seven-and-a-half years for kidnap, also to run concurrently.

Both men admitted all the charges.