TWO teenagers who attacked and robbed a 17-year-old leaving him with a broken arm are behind bars.

Nineteen-year-old Jon Barnes and his 16-year-old accomplice followed their victim to a quiet industrial estate in Peterlee after seeing him pay for a burger from a clear plastic bag containing hundreds of pounds.

After one of them subjected him to a beating with a fence post and kicked him in an attack lasting several minutes, the two fled the scene with his cash and a mobile phone, Durham Crown Court was told.

Sentencing the teenagers Judge Christopher Prince said: “The offence was pre-planned to the extent that when you left the takeaway you were intending to rob him.

“You demonstrated in your pursuit of him your determination to catch up with him when he was vulnerable and when he was on his own at night

“It was a cowardly offence where you knew you were going to adopt violence to achieve your ends.”

Chris Baker, prosecuting, said the victim was at a takeaway in the town centre at 1am on April 11 when he was seen paying for his meal from a bag containing up to £600 in savings and Christmas money.

He said: “When the victim set off home CCTV captured the defendants running after him both holding fence posts in their hands.

“The victim was a mile-and-a-half away when he felt a pain to his left side of his head and fell to the ground.

“He looked up to see the 16-year-old hitting him with a fence slat, while Barnes was trying to get into his pocket saying “where is your money”.

“He managed to get up and run a short distance, before he was struck again with a fence slat. He fell to the ground again and was being kicked in his back.”

When the 16-year-old was arrested he was found in possession of £105 in cash and admitted he had struck the victim with a wooden fence slat and kicked him.

Ros Scott Bell Scott, mitigating said for the 16-year-old said he was from a “good loving supportive family” and had acted “completely out of character”.

Dan Cordey, mitigating, for Barnes said: “He is not a sophisticated young man, who has grown up with a very difficult family background.”

The 16-year-old was sentenced to 32 months detention. Barnes, of no fixed abode, who was in breach of a suspended sentence for burglary, was sentenced to 46 months in a youth offenders’ institution.

Both pleaded guilty to robbery.