FIVE teenagers have been jailed for a brutal car park mugging in which they repeatedly floored a man and broke his jaw.

Recorder Alistair MacDonald QC told them: “Every one of you was behaving like an animal really, causing aggravation and difficulty to ordinary people out enjoying themselves in York city centre.”

The boys' ages means they cannot be named for legal reasons. 

Three of the gang were 15 and the oldest had just turned 17 when, high on drink and drugs, they surrounded a stranger as he returned to his car in Marygate car park with his partner after an evening meal together.

Graham O’Sullivan, prosecuting, said the five boys put the man to the ground three times and all of them kicked him as he tried vainly to protect himself and his property in Marygate car park.

They grabbed his mobile phone and tried to get his car keys. When that failed, two of them tried to get his partner to hand over her car keys before all five ran off.

They left the man with a broken jaw, unable to eat solid food for six weeks, and caused other injuries and lasting psychological effects.

The attack was so violent that two female friends of the gang who had tried to stop the attack before it started fled in fear and phoned police.

The judge said all of the gang had been drinking, some had taken drugs, four of them had been on court orders designed to stop them offending, and the ringleader had been on an electronically monitored curfew that should have prevented him being out at night.

They had treated with scorn repeated attempts to make them law-abiding citizens, the judge said, and he praised the Youth Offending Team for their efforts to reform the gang before and after the robbery last summer.

DC Matthew Brownridge, of York Serious Crime Team, said: “This was a shocking attack. Although such incidents in York are rare, the thorough investigation and subsequent sentences send a clear message that such appalling behaviour will not be tolerated.

“I would also like to echo the comments made by the Judge, in that the victim and his partner showed great courage throughout this difficult case.”

York Crown Court heard the victim had been an outdoor sporting man who was now afraid to meet groups of young people in the street and could not do the long cycle rides he used to enjoy, the judge said.

York Press:

Members of the gangs’ families reacted angrily in the public gallery at York Crown Court as the first sentences were passed and the judge had to order silence before he could continue. Some relatives walked out.

After the hearing, police formed a cordon round the prison van taking them away to prevent their friends from causing problems.

All five pleaded guilty to robbery. Lawyers for all of them said they were remorseful.

A 17-year-old of no fixed address whom the judge said was the ring leader and who had started the incident by challenging the man, was jailed for five years and four months. He had been 16 during the attack last July.

His barrister Taryn Turner said he had shown signs of becoming more responsible during a 12-month detention and training order imposed for burglary since the robbery.

A 16-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the robbery, from Acomb, had been the first to hit the man and had also been a kind of ringleader, said the judge. He was jailed for five years.

For him, Neal Kutte said he had been showing false bravado.

A 16-year-old, also 15 at the time of the robbery, from Clifton and a 15-year-old from Fulford were jailed for four years each. Mr Kutte for the first said he had shown signs of changing and Mrs Turner for the second said he had had little formal education.

A 17-year-old from central York was jailed for three years and the judge asked for him to be kept separately from the others after his barrister Lydia Carroll said he had been attacked by another gang member since the robbery.

The judge rejected his claim he had only joined in the mugging out of fear.