DRUNKEN thugs who battered two brothers because they were wearing wedding suits were jailed yesterday.

Darren and Wayne Elmer had been to a cousin’s wedding when they were attacked in a street in Darlington by two strangers.

The brothers were followed home, where windows were smashed in Darren’s car and in Wayne’s house, where his partner and young child were terrified by the onslaught.

Wayne, 32, managed to escape inside the house, but when he went out with a pickaxe handle to ward off the thugs, he was overpowered.

Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Wayne and his brother, 30, were both beaten with the pickaxe handle.

Wayne suffered a fractured thumb and needed seven stitches in a head wound. Darren was also injured.

Police searching for the attackers arrested Michael Hudson, 20, Daniel Richmond, 19, and beauty therapy student Sarah Perry, 18, at a bus stop.

Perry had initially taunted the brothers over their suits by shouting “look at the state of you”, before Hudson and Richmond launched the attack.

Judge Tony Briggs said: “You answer for an indictment that reflects a disgraceful and terrifying course of behaviour, where two people were met in the street, attacked and pursued to their home. Drunken yobbery of this sort is something that the public are completely and utterly sick of, and it must be marked with significant sentences.”

Kate Dodds, for Hudson, said her client knew he was going to spend a considerable period of time in custody, and that he admitted guilt at the earliest opportunity.

She said: “He intends to use it to work on the defects he recognises – his loss of temper and his drinking.”

Nathan Adams, for Richmond, said his client understood the difficulties that he had with drink and that he had made efforts to change that.

Dan Cordey, for Perry, said she had shouted abuse at the victims, but when the situation worsened, she had acted as a peacemaker.

Hudson, of Hilda Street, Darlington, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for three years and nine months after he pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on May 23. The sentence included 12 weeks from a previously suspended sentence for assault with intent to rob.

Richmond, of Bolton Close, Darlington, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for 12 months after he admitted affray.

Perry, of Auckland Avenue, Darlington, was given a 12-month conditional discharge after she admitted public disorder.