by Keith Hunt

Two teenagers have been locked up for a vicious attack in a Sittingbourne park which left their victim with a broken jaw.

Jack Raines, of The Oast, Upchurch, and Mark Turner, from Herne Bay, were each sentenced to nine months' youth custody.

Raines, 19, and Turner, 18, had admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on university student Russell Sime in Albany Recreation Ground, in Albany Road, on July 2 last year.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the 18-year-old victim was playing football with a group of youths celebrating their A-level results when Raines and Turner arrived with others.

Prosecutor Benjamin Holt said a fight started and another man was knocked to the ground.

Mr Sime went to help him and was then attacked. He was doubled up by a punch in the chest from Raines and struck once in the face by boxing enthusiast Turner.

Mr Sime's jaw was fractured in two places. He had to have reconstruction. Several witnesses later identified Raines and Turner on the social networking site Facebook.

Raines has previous convictions for a public order offence and possessing an offensive weapon. He also has a number of reprimands and cautions between 2002 and 2006, when he was aged 10 to 14.

Turner was convicted of a public order offence just two weeks before the attack on Mr Sime.

The victim told in a statement of the pain and suffering he endured. At first he did not leave home, he said, because he was fearful of another attack, adding: "I believe in time I will be confident like I was before the incident, but it is still something I am working towards."

Judge Jeremy Carey told Turner, of Prospect Farm, Greenhill, Herne Bay, and Raines, Mr Sime had done nothing to justify an attack on him, "even less what you did to him".

He said that while he accepted they were sorry and sensible arguments not to send them to prison had been made, the youths needed to be seen to be punished.

They will serve half the sentence. The judge added the victim richly deserved compensation but his attackers did not have the means to pay.