A man who punched a youth off a wall and threw a bicycle on top of him in a York park has walked free from court.

York Crown Court heard how Daniel Joseph Crichlow, 27, left work to answer a cry for help from a knife-carrying 14-year-old boy who had been involved in incidents with the youth that day and the previous day.

The teenager told York magistrates last December he had endured “substantial racial harassment” from a group of young people, some of whom were caught up in violence that erupted in Museum Gardens last July. Nothing was said to indicate that the youth who had been pushed off the wall had been racist. Crichlow, of St Barnabas’ Close, York, pleaded guilty to affray.

A charge of possessing a knife in public, which he denied, was left on file.

“This was a very unpleasant episode of public disorder, but I understand what your motives were in getting involved,” Recorder Ben Nolan QC told Crichlow. Nothing was said about racism during the crown court hearing.

He ordered Crichlow to do 80 hours’ unpaid work. David Garnett, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said that shortly after the boy’s phone call, Crichlow found the youth sitting on a wall on July 26 and punched him in the face.

“As a result he fell to the floor and put his arms up around his head to protect himself, and then the defendant (Crichlow) stamped on his head while the (14-year-old) kicked him in the head.

“The older defendant picked up a BMX bike and, holding the bike in both hands, raised it and threw it on to the back of the victim.”

Then the 14-year-old handed his knife to Crichlow and the violence stopped. Crichlow did not brandish the knife. The youth suffered a lump to the back of his head and other injuries, but was not seriously hurt.

For Crichlow, Nicholas Barker did not offer any mitigation after the judge said he would not jail him. The 14-year-old boy admitted affray and carrying a knife in public in December, and York Youth Court gave him a 12-month referral order.