KENNY Thomas was on parole at the time of the mob attack on May 30, 2019, from a five-year sentence for two York city centre robberies.

Judge Robert Bartfield told Bradford Crown Court Thomas and two others had behaved “like a pack of animals” as they selected strangers at random to rob on July 18, 2015.

“One of the serious aspects of what you did is that people who hear of this in York will be fearful of going to the city centre at night, whatever their ages, lest they be set upon by people like you,” he told Thomas.

Thomas, then aged 16, and his friends had targeted a man with cerebral palsy on Bootham. They knocked him over, causing him to hit his head and probably lose consciousness. They stole his wallet and left him there, with a hairline fracture to his left cheekbone, two chipped teeth which needed dental treatment and cuts to his nose.

The victim wanted to leave York after the incident and was scared to go out on his own again.

Later the same night, Thomas, now 22, of Crombie Avenue, Clifton, and his friends targeted a middle-aged man near Judi Dench Walk. They knocked him down, stole his wallet, phone and car keys and left him unconscious.

Thomas denied two charges of robbery but was convicted by a jury.

When he was 14, Thomas had tried to rob a cyclist of his bike at knifepoint. He had pulled out a penknife and demanded that the bike be handed over.