TWO late-night drinkers have received suspended jail terms after night marshals caught them beating up a third man “on a whim” as he lay on the ground.

Matthew Donkin, prosecuting, said David Crisp, then 17, kicked Stuart Guy in the head as the street patrol watched, in Market Place, in Selby town centre.

As they restrained him, his companion, Jason Lloyd, pulled Mr Guy’s head up by the hair and punched him twice.

But marshals grabbed him too and detained both men until police arrived and arrested them.

Judge Colin Burn told Crisp and Lloyd: “What you did on November 19 last year in Selby is depressingly familiar.

“You had had far too much to drink. You just decided on a whim, really, to take out your feelings on Mr Guy.”

He warned Crisp that he was “fortunate” he was not on a more serious charge.

“People have suffered fatal injuries from a kick,” the judge said.

He gave both men a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, on condition each man does two years’ supervision and 240 hours’ unpaid work and Crisp additionally does a rehabilitation course for controlling his temper.

Crisp, now 18, of Sotheron Street, Goole, and Lloyd, 21, of Carlisle Street, Goole, both pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm. They must also pay £250 each towards prosecution costs.

Mr Donkin said Mr Guy suffered two black eyes, some damage to his face and a tooth and pain in his lower back and leg.

It was not clear how the violence began and Mr Guy was already on the ground when the night marshals were alerted and intervened in the early hours of November 19.

For Lloyd, Nicholas Barker said he was a trained welder who worked for an injection moulding company and wanted to go into the army.

He gave no further mitigation and Sarah Smith gave no mitigation for Crisp, who is unemployed, after the judge indicated he would suspend the prison sentence.