UNDERAGE drinkers and their 18-year-old friend kicked and stamped on a fellow teenager during a late night town centre attack.

One of the group was just 16 when he kicked and stamped on a 17-year-old on the ground, and lost his Army career as a result, his barrister Andrew Semple told York Crown Court.

He was one of four friends who attacked the victim near Market Cross in Selby shortly after midnight on March 28. The others were aged 15, 17 and 18 at the time.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said they hit and punched the victim, putting him to the ground and pushing him against a fence.

All four admitted causing actual bodily harm and stood together in York Crown Court to receive their punishment for what the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, called a "quite disgraceful incident of drunken violence".

"The whole thing escalated, I have no doubt, from nothing at all, perhaps a chance remark, perhaps a glance or something like that, because you were all full of drink when some of you shouldn't have been drinking at all," he told them.

The former soldier, who is now 17 and from a village near Selby, was given a youth rehabilitation order with two years' supervision and an anger management course and ordered to pay £100 compensation. Mr Semple said he was now working hard as an apprentice.

The 15-year-old, who has since turned 16 and is from the same village, was given a six-month referral order and was not ordered to pay compensation. Mr Semple said he had tried towards the end to calm matters down. Neither can be named because they are still under 18.

Ryan Foggin, 17 at the time and now 18, of Eden Avenue, Selby, who put the victim to the ground, and Conlon Shaw, 18, both at the time and now, of Station Road, Hambleton near Selby, were each ordered to do 150 hours' unpaid work. Foggin was ordered to pay £400 compensation and Shaw £250. The judge tailored the compensation orders to the defendants' individual incomes.

Liam Hassan, for Foggin, said he had played less of a part in the violence than others. Taryn Turner, for Shaw, said although he had been involved at the start, he had not been involved at the end.