SEVEN young men will have to perform more than 1,400 hours of unpaid work for the community after end-of-school celebrations turned violent in a city centre street.

One man was repeatedly kicked by some of the men as he lay on the ground when two groups of people fought in Station Rise in the early hours, York Crown Court heard.

The violence started with a confrontation inside and outside Club Salvation, where one set of friends were marking the end of their examination season and another set had come into York after attending a Year 13 Prom at Malton.

After watching CCTV coverage of the night’s events, Judge Roger Ibbotson told the seven men in the dock: “It was clearly a quite disgraceful incident in which you were involved.”

He said it was only a matter of luck they had not killed or seriously injured someone in the violence.

Lawyers for all seven said they had behaved out of character and were generally decent, responsible people, mostly with jobs Bricklayer Benjamin Michael Laverack, 19, of Carter Avenue, Tang Hall, was ordered to do 220 hours’ unpaid work. He had a previous conviction for violence.

Jobless Alexander Edward Aiken, 19, of St Mary’s, Bootham, bricklayer Paul Green, 19, of Whitestone Drive, Huntington, fire service employee John David Harrison, 24, of Abbot’s Gait, Huntington, apprentice stonemason Daniel Thomas McMahon, 19, of Cherry Tree Avenue, New Earswick, and Benjamin George Neal, 20, of Pottery Lane, Heworth, were each given 200 hours unpaid work.

Daniel John Richardson, 19, of Angelica Close, Rillinghall, Harrogate, was ordered to do 160 hours’ unpaid work. All admitted affray and were ordered to pay £100 towards prosecution costs.

Simon Ostler, prosecuting, said all seven had been drinking.

After the violence outside the club was broken up by doormen and police, six of the group, who were marking the end of exams, had moved off on foot towards the war memorial in Station Rise and the seventh, Richardson, who had attended the prom, had been a passenger with others in a red Peugeot which drove off in the same direction.

The fighting broke out when the two groups encountered each other again near the railway war memorial.