A JUDGE at Exeter Crown Court has criticised a culture of late-night thuggery after hearing how two teachers were battered in a random attack.

Stevie Donald from Newton Abbot and Rhys Wright from Exeter set on the two victims as they were using a cashpoint in the centre of Torquay shortly after nearby clubs had closed at 3am.

The attackers punched and headbutted the two male teachers before a friend joined in and kicked one of the victims in the face.

Donald and Wright were so drunk they could not remember what they had done. Wright was on a tagged curfew at the time and should not even have been out on the streets.

The teachers both suffered cuts and bruises to their faces and one had to take time off work because he was worried his appearance would scare his pupils.

Judge Timothy Rose said they had gone out looking for a fight and were determined to inflict injury on someone as part of their night out.

Donald, aged 21, of Bushell Road, Newton Abbot, and Wright, aged 21, of Parkers Road, Exeter, admitted affray. Donald was jailed for a year and Wright for 16 months, both suspended for two years. Both were ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work and attend a thinking skills course.

The judge told them: ‘We all know what this was. Young men going out and getting completely and utterly drunk and picking on two entirely innocent men who were completely unconnected to them.

‘They had nothing to do with you at all other than having the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was partly pathetic and partly horribly aggressive and violent.

‘You manufactured a situation and then would not let it go because you would not be satisfied until you had hurt someone that night.

‘You got involved for the hell of it. This was violence just because you wanted to be violent. It was street level thuggery with nasty consequences for the victims.’

Mr Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said the two teachers were in the Chicken Land takeaway in Torwood Street, Torquay, at 3.20am on July 23 last year. 

One of them went across the road to a cashpoint and was followed by Donald, who accused him of insulting his sister.

The second teacher crossed the road to try to calm things down but was headbutted by Donald. Wright then punched the other to the face before the third attacker kicked him in the head.

They made victim impact statements saying they were scared and alarmed by the randomness of the attacks. One said he took time off work because of his injuries.

Mr Tom Bradnock, for Donald, said he had no prior convictions for violence and had curtailed his drinking and drug use during the lockdown. He was willing to work with probation to improve his behaviour.

Mr Paul Dentith, for Wright, said he had served a jail sentence for unrelated offences since this incident and had learned his lesson. He has stayed out of trouble since his release in January.

He was a care leaver who did not receive the usual parental guidance while growing up and would benefit from the probation service’s thinking skills course.