Two brothers convicted of sending a menacing Facebook post which led to some schools in Newtown going into lockdown have been given community orders.

Laurie Patrick Coleman, 27, and Saul Dre Coleman, 20, both of Lon Maesycoed, Newtown, were given a 12-month community and ordered to do 50 days of unpaid work by Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday, December 1.

Chair of the bench Dr Rachel Jones told the brothers: “You are young men at the start of your lives. Keep on the straight and narrow.”

At a trial in November, the brothers were found guilty of sending menacing communications after a deliberately-badly created image involved an AK47 superimposed on two men with the words "feeling cute, might go and shoot up a school" was shared to a public Facebook group.

Newtown High School was locked down on Friday, September 18, after the image was uploaded as Laurie Coleman's new Facebook profile picture at about 7am.

However, the court heard that by the time the school was locked down later that day, amid online rumours that somebody was outside acting suspiciously with a gun, the duo were already in police custody after being arrested at about 11am.

Pupils were kept indoors and alerts were sent out to parents after the rumours spread.

The posts were part of banter the brothers were having via the social media site with two friends who were all in the house together at that time, and 15 minutes later, Saul Coleman shared his brother's post to the Welshpool and Newtown 'Buy and Sell' page which could be seen by about 8,000 people.

Saul Coleman was told that he must pay £505, while his older brother must pay £445.