A JUDGE warned that drink is no excuse for violence when he jailed two teenagers on the eve of the Christmas festivities.

Judge Leslie Spittle told Brent Fellows,18, and Stanley Collin,19, that they were guilty of "thuggish and loutish behaviour" that terrified others when they attacked a shopkeeper and left his store a scene of devastation.

The judge had watched a security video at Teesside Crown Court of the incident at Premier Newsagents in Hartlepool after the owner caught Collin apparently trying to steal.

Prosecutor Patricia Mancina said it was clear that both men were drunk when they went on the rampage throwing sweets and cakes around, smashing bottles, and shopkeeper Pathmanathan Thurai was held down and punched.

Two girl customers, aged 13 and 17, were frightened by what went on, and their father who arrived to pick them up chased and caught Fellows who was hiding in bushes with Collin.

Miss Mancina said that Collin could not remember the incident having drunk half a bottle of whisky, lager and a two-litre bottle of cider.

Fellows was first convicted when he was 12 and Collin at 13. Fellows was in breach of a community punishment order for leading two others in an attack on a man in Tower Street, Hartlepool.

Paul Cleasby, defending Fellows, said: "Thankfully, the shopkeeper was not badly hurt and no racial abuse took place, but it is loutish behaviour which people should not have to tolerate.

"He is just 18 and when he is sober he is sensible and when he is drunk he is not."

Collin has since sought help for his problem with drink, said Robin Denny defending.

Judge Spittle told the men: "I saw the video, it is quite appalling what happened there.

"You attacked that shopkeeper two onto one, it must have been a terrifying experience for him. But also there were young people in that shop who must have been frightened by what happened. Drink is no excuse.

"This offence is so serious that public interest demands that those who indulge in it are punished for it."

Fellows, of Kerr Grove, Hartlepool, was sentenced to 12 months detention in a young offender's institution after he pleaded guilty to the September 26 affray and breach of community punishment for unlawful wounding.

Collin, of Church Street, Hartlepool, was sentenced to 10 months after he admitted affray and theft.