A fierce online debate has broken out over the arranged fight - which was caught on a mobile phone camera - between two boys which left one of them brain-damaged and unable to speak, wash or dress himself.

Jack Blanchard, 13, from Rainham was brutally beaten and kicked as he lay on the floor unconscious after meeting 14-year-old Jordan Akehurst for a fight at Parkwood Green.

Akehurst, of Castlemaine Avenue, Gillingham was locked up after admitting causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He will serve half his four-year sentence in a young offenders institute.

Two other teenagers were also punished for their part in the attack.

Comments have flooded into our website (many of them unpublishable for either legal or language reasons) about the fight - and the video footage of it released by Kent Police - which went beyond a normal playground tussle.

~ Watch the footage and read the published comments >>>

Gary from Rainham said: “Whilst I have sympathy for the victim, why was he 'arranging' a fight with the other boy in the first place? What has been done to identify the onlookers who were obviously there to watch this pre-arranged fight?

"How can they live with themselves knowing they could’ve done something to help Jack and that it may have prevented the damage caused to his brain?"

John, also from Rainham argued: "Mr Blanchard was not an innocent bystander. In fact, he had arranged the fight to happen, and claimed he was the hardest boy in Rainham.

"It just seems like a good grammar school kid had been beaten up by a thug from a non-selective school but this is not the case. These people are animals, but not complete scum."

But Justin from Maidstone replied: "If Akehurst had walked away once Jack was down there would have been no problem and no everlasting damage. There might have been a hurt ego but to have put a defenseless person in hospital is despicable."

Chantele from Rainham said: "I think that they are getting off very lightly. To put a young boy in the condition they left him in is outrageous."

Rochester's Dave Matthews added: "No matter who started it, whatever happened to a fair fight and not kicking someone when they're down?

"I had many a playground scrap when I was young, but there were rules. Break them and you were considered the lowest of the low. Kids these days have no honour."

Dylan Richards, 15, and another teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, joined in with kicks as Jack lay seriously injured on the ground.

Richards of Skinner Street, Gillingham, was sentenced to 18 months detention and training.

The other youth, aged 15 and also from Gillingham, was given a community order with two years supervision after Judge Jeremy Carey expressed dismay that he could not, by law, send him into "richly deserved" custody.

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