JAIL sentences are the only solution to stamping out drunken violence, a judge said yesterday.
Judge John Walford, jailing two men for affray in Middlesbrough, said that the public was sick of drunken young men indulging in casual violence.
The court was shown security TV footage of Anthony Pease and Mark Nicholls, both 23, involved in running street battles near Middlesbrough railway station.
Police used CS gas to halt Pease, who has convictions for assault and who was breaching a conditional discharge for drunk and disorderly behaviour, said Clare Donaldson, prosecuting.
Window fitter Pease needed seven stitches in a cut to his tongue, Teesside Crown Court heard. He and Nicholls were ashamed when they saw their behaviour on camera, their lawyers told the judge.
Jamie Hill, defending, said Pease got drunk and became involved in a fight but had come off the worst. Nicholls claimed he became involved after seeing Pease lying on the ground.
Pease, of Roworth Road, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 12 months and Nicholls, of Barrington Crescent, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 28 days after admitting affray on February 12.
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