A SOLDIER training at Catterick Garrison picked up a brick and threatened a gang of Darlington drinkers, a court heard yesterday.

Thomas James Peach, 19, of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment at Helles Barracks, Catterick, and who is from Shrewsbury, admitted using threatening behaviour in Darlington on July 12.

James Thomas, prosecuting, told the town's magistrates that CCTV monitors showed the defendant involved in a row between Army personnel and a group of local youths.

"There is some finger pointing and at one stage the defendant makes some contact with his finger in the face of one of the youths.

"He has a brick in his hand at the time, but there is no indication that the brick was used."

The court heard it was the first time Peach and his colleagues had visited Darlington and that he had been "set upon".

He and his colleagues had been confronted by 14 or 15 youths and he had picked up the brick in a defensive manner, magistrates heard.

Peach had been in serious trouble before and had served a spell in prison, but since joining the Army his behaviour had improved.

One of his senior officers told the court that Peach had so far completed 24 weeks at Catterick and he had had an exemplary disciplinary record.

The magistrates gave him a six-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £55 costs.