A teenager who helped to rob a student of his laptop and iPhone has been locked up for two years.

Abdulgafar Abdulsalan, 18, of Gordon Road, Chatham, was one of a gang of four, including a 15-year-old boy, who befriended 23-year-old Andrew Simpson.

After meeting him at Gillingham railway station on June 16 last year and inviting him to a fair and house party in Faversham, the gang led him through alleyways and secluded streets before repeatedly kicking and punching him.

Although Abdulsalan, who was 17 at the time, did not resort to violence himself, Maidstone Crown Court heard he rifled through Mr Simpson’s pocket and took his phone, worth £200.

His Apple Mac laptop worth £800 was also stolen. Prosecutor Edmund Fowler said it contained Mr Simpson’s three years’ degree work but, together with the phone, has never been recovered.

Mr Simpson also suffered black eyes, a burst ear drum, broken ribs and cuts and grazes to his head and body. Abdulsalan and the 15-year-old boy, who is now 16, were later identified by police from CCTV images and picked out by Mr Simpson. Both admitted robbery.

Judge David Caddick told them: “This was a nasty offence characterised by group action at night and, certainly up to a point, planned.

“You gained Mr Simpson’s confidence and he was lulled into a false sense of security. There were not inconsiderable injuries from the kicking and punching all over his body and the impact on him, not just in losing his valuable goods, is not surprising.

Judge Caddick added that while Abdulsalan, who has previous convictions for theft and robbery, may not have been “the most active” in the group, he had been lending full support to the others.

“You bear full responsibility for your part in what happened,” the judge continued.

The 16-year-old from Chatham, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was given a youth rehabilitation order with 18 months’ supervision, an Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme requirement and a three-month electronically-tagged curfew.

Judge Caddick said he accepted that he had not been involved in any pre-planning or the physical attack on Mr Simpson.

He continued: “I also accept that although you were 15, you were probably younger than that in terms of your maturity, very susceptible to peer pressure and not very bright when it came to seeing through what was going on.”

He also told the youth, who has previous convictions for robbery, theft, burglary and battery and was subject to another rehabilitation order at the time of robbing Mr Simpson, that this was his “final chance” to avoid a life of crime."

An application by the Kent Messenger Group court reporter to lift an order banning the publication of the youth’s identity was refused by Judge Caddick on the grounds that he was once the victim of a kidnapping and gave evidence at his captors’ trial.