FESTIVE goodwill was forgotten when four callers were refused entry to a house on Christmas Day, a court heard.

Michael Edward Maxwell, Mark Thomas Gaskell, David Cummings and David Parker turned violent and assaulted the householder outside his home in Trimdon Station, County Durham.

Despite being told the severity of the attack merited a prison sentence, the quartet walked free from Durham Crown Court, to the relief of families packing the public gallery.

The 28-year-old victim, who refused them entry, suffered a broken jaw after being dragged from the doorstep and beaten, while the gang put out a window of the house, in Wood View.

Eighteen-year-old Cummings, of Wood View, Trimdon Station, admitted causing unlawful wounding, while Gaskell, 22, of Wilkinson Road, Horden, and 21-year-old Maxwell, of Millbank Chapel Terrace, Station Town, both east Durham, each admitted affray.

Seventeen-year-old Parker, of Station Road East, Trimdon Station, admitted using threatening words and behaviour.

Judge Esmund Faulks said all four deserved a spell behind bars, but he was just able to avoid locking them up, in part because of their guilty pleas and also as Gaskell has spent some time on remand in custody.

Cummings, Maxwell and Gaskell were given community rehabilitation orders, including 100-hours community punishment work each over the next year.

Parker was given a six-month community rehabilitation order.

Judge Faulks warned them that under new guidelines for sentencing, all four could expect to be locked up if convicted of another violent offence.