A STUDENT was viciously attacked after standing up to a group of thugs, a court heard.
Victim Lee Hartley, of Flint, was celebrating his birthday with friends in Bangor when he and his friends were ambushed on the steps to the city’s Mountain View car park.
They were attacked with bottles, a piece of wood, they were kicked and punched, and a woman who pleaded with them to stop was punched as well.
The court heard how heckling aimed towards a young woman who suffered from dwarfism turned to violence and Mr Hartley was kicked and punched and struck with the plank of wood, when he asked them to stop.
He suffered cuts and bruising and a broken nose which was re-set but not wholly successfully.
His brother Stephen Hartley, of Caernarfon, was hit on the head with a bottle and kicked and punched while on the ground.
He lost consciousness, suffered a wound to the forehead, bruising and a broken jaw.
Three others in the party, including the two women, were also injured.
At Mold Crown Court yesterday Matthew Parry, 20, of Carneddi, Bethesda; Tyrone Davies, 18, of Gerlan, Bethesda, and a 16-year-old boy, were unanimously convicted of two charges of wounding, and violent disorder.
The defendants had denied all the charges following the incident in April last year.
Another 17-year-old defendant, who was found to have the blood from Lee Hartley, on his jeans and trainer admitted all three charges at the start of the trial.
Two others, both youngsters aged 17, were cleared at the end of the prosecution case when the judge accepted their barristers’ arguments that they had no case to answer.
Jury members heard how on April 16 a party of about nine students and their friends were out celebrating Lee Hartley’s birthday.
They were surrounded by a group of up to ten men who came from the bottom of the steps, from the side, and from the top, where a sofa had been set alight.
Lee Hartley asked them to stop making the sort of abusive remarks, that no one should be subjected to, towards a friend who suffered from dwarfism, but he was attacked.
A man calling himself Rocky, said to be Parry, in a grey hoodie, confronted him and described himself as harder than all the rest before punching him to the face.
Once on the ground he was kicked to the head and body.
As he got up he saw his brother Stephen under attack and went to intervene before he was dragged away and then struck several times with the plank of wood being wielded by one of the attackers, explained prosecuting barrister Karl Scholz.
A young woman saw the attack, asked people to stop, but it was alleged that Parry told her “not to mess with me, I am harder than the others”.
Stephen Hartley saw his brother attacked with a piece of wood, which also struck a young woman who went to protect him.
He himself was then hit with the plank, he went to the ground and lost consciousness as people were kicking him.
A bottle was used to cause a wound over his left eye.
Parry, who said he had been drinking, claimed he arrived as the violence was coming to an end and that he only punched out once, claiming he did so in self-defence.
Judge Niclas Parry said it was the actions of people like them that have recently tarnished the reputation of the young people of Bangor.
He said: “The public of North Wales are aware that steps as Draconian as curfews on all young people at night in Bangor have been considered.
“That is because of the behaviour of young people like you.”
They had all been convicted of serious matters and it was inevitable that lengthy custodial sentences would follow, he said.
They will be sentenced at the end of August.