An 18-year-old involved in attacking a youth who suffered a broken nose and cheekbone has been told to do community service.

Harlon Moutousamy, of Dunnington Road, Wootton Bassett, punched the victim to the face during a violent incident close to a nightclub in Swindon town centre.

His friends Oliver Langford, 19, from Purton, James Harding, 21, and Luke Moore, 18, of Swindon, also admitted being involved in an affray after another lad was attacked.

Philip Warren, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court how the violence erupted close to the Casbah in John Street in the early hours of Monday August 3 last year.

He said the young victim and a pal were on the ground floor of the nearby multi-storey car park when they saw a group of about ten youths shouting at each other.

The teenager then felt his legs being swept away from underneath him and a number of blows including stamps and kicks were rained on him by three or four attackers.

As the group left him he looked back towards the Casbah, where he had earlier been, and saw his friend also being attacked by the group.

Mr Warren said the teenager was taken to hospital where he was found to have a displaced nasal fracture and a break just below his eye socket. He said his friend would not make a statement of complaint to the police.

When Moutousamy was questioned he admitted he had punched the first youth to the face a few times which knocked him to the ground.

Harding admitted he had wanted to attack the second youth and was behaving violently, Moore said he punched him and Langford accepted being generally aggressive.

Moutousamy, of Dunnington Road, Wootton Bassett, pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm.

Harding, of Lennox Drive, Walcot, Langford, of Station Road, Purton, and Moore, of County Road, pleaded guilty to affray.

Mark Ashley, defending, said Moutousamy greatly regretted what he had done and had recently spent ten weeks in Nepal helping orphans in a hospital and Langford had changed a great deal since the incident.

Rob Ross, for Harding and Moore, said the older youth was in work while the younger was at college.

Passing sentence Judge Douglas Field said “The court takes a serious view of this sort of public disorder late at night and clearly drink has been taken and there is violence and there is threatening behaviour and the public are getting fed up with this sort of behaviour.”

He ordered Moutousamy and Langford to each do 100 hours of community service and told Harding he must complete 80.

The case of Moore was sent to the youth court where he will receive a referral order as he was still 17 years old when he was convicted of the offence.