FOUR young men who fought passengers at York Railway Station twice within an hour have been handed Christmas curfews.

But the quartet were spared a spell in prison because it took British Transport Police and the CPS West’s division more than a year to put them before the courts.

York Crown Court saw CCTV of the violent behaviour on the station’s footbridge of binge drinkers Benjamin Saul Cooper, 20, Joseph Liam Jackson, 19, Finlay Logan Davidson-Ward, 19, and Thomas Michael Wade, 19, on July 14, 2018.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said Jackson was racially abusive to a group of Chinese people and others among the four goaded them before attacking them.

After that incident ended the four attacked a racegoer and kicked him on the ground.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said the four had been on an “all-day drinking session”.

“This is what happens when young men drink themselves into oblivion,” he said.

“I’m going to lock you up for Christmas. You can stay inside and watch everyone else going out and having a good time.”

He gave each a month-long curfew from 6pm to 6am and ordered each to do 200 hours’ unpaid work and pay £200 prosecution costs.

He suspended prison sentences for 12 months because they had had the additional punishment of having to wait a year for their case to start when police had had CCTV evidence and other evidence on which they could have charged the quartet by August 2018.

“The public are not being well served by the delay.

"Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said.

He gave Jackson a 12-month suspended prison sentence and the rest eight-month suspended prison sentences.

Scarborough residents Cooper, of Hoxton Road, Jackson, of Sandybed Crescent, and Ward, of Ryndale Walk, and Davidson-Ward of Laurel Close, Burniston, all pleaded guilty to two charges of affray.

Fiona Clancy and Andrew Petterson for the quartet said they were all studying or training hard, were remorseful and had behaved out of character.