THREE men whose drunken garden invasion and gang attack drove a family from their home have received suspended prison sentences with other punishments.

All three will also have to pay compensation for what Judge Andrew Stubbs QC called their “disgraceful behaviour” during which they attacked a couple and two teenage children.

“Worryingly, troublingly and distressingly, they (the family) have had to move house because of the violence and abuse they suffered,” the judge said.

Martin Robertshaw, prosecuting, said David Michael Ellis, 34, Stuart Richard Hart, 38, and Jonathan Martin Williams, 26, kicked and stamped on Williams’ then next-door neighbour as he lay on the ground.

Between them, they also bit the neighbour’s finger, grabbed his wife by the throat and pushed her to the ground, grabbed his son by the throat, and kicked his daughter.

All three had invaded the family’s garden after throwing chicken bones from a barbecue in Williams’ garden over the fence between the two properties, and shouting abuse.

"It is quite clear all had been drinking and were clearly in a rowdy frame of mind," said Mr Robertshaw.

All three pleaded guilty to affray and received 18-month prison sentences, suspended for two years on conditions at York Crown Court.

Hart, of Bradley Crescent, Rufforth, was ordered to do 120 hours’ unpaid work, ten days rehabilitative activities and wear an alcohol abstinence tag stopping him from drinking for 50 days. He was told to pay the father £500 compensation.

Ellis, of Pottery Lane, York, was ordered to do 100 hours’ unpaid work, 15 days’ rehabilitative activities and a three-month nightly curfew from 8pm to 7am when not at work.

Williams, of Regent Street, off Lawrence Street, York, was ordered to have an alcohol abstinence tag for 90 days, do 20 days' rehabilitative activities and was put under a six-month nightly curfew from 8pm to 7am when not working.

Both Ellis and Williams were ordered to pay £750 compensation each to the father. Both are currently doing a community order for pub-related violence committed after the barbecue violence in July 2016.

All three were banned under a restraining order for contacting any member of the victim family for ten years.

Lawyers for the three all said their clients had cut down on their drinking and were no longer associating with each other and that prison would adversely affect their families and could lead to them losing their homes.

Kevin Blount, for Hart, said he had at times during the incident been acting as a peacemaker, Stephen Grattage said Ellis apologised for his actions and Victoria Smith Swain for Williams made allegations about the victim family.