THREE middle-aged men "brought shame upon themselves and their families" by their drunken violence on a social night out, York Crown Court heard.

Peter Harris, 51, Michael John Rudkin, 52, and John David Raper, 45, injured or assaulted seven customers and bar staff at the Stone Roses pub and left two women crying hysterically, said David Ward, prosecuting.

The violence erupted as the three and their friends were being escorted out following an incident.

When the violence spread into the pub's pool room, the two women and their father were attacked.

All three defendants had been drinking.

"It was completely and utterly unprovoked," said Mr Ward. "They (the victims in the pool room) were utterly boxed in, there was nowhere they could go."

Speaking of the violence as a whole, he said: “It was a prolonged incident, clearly under the influence of alcohol and with a large number of victims.”

After watching CCTV of the violence, the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris said: "It is ridiculous, three hard-working middle-aged men in this sort of incident."

He told the three: "You behaved disgracefully. You have brought shame upon yourself and upon your families.

"It is going to cost you and you are going to have to do a lot of work, free of charge, for the public to atone for your behaviour."

He ordered all three to each pay a total of £1,240 in compensation and prosecution costs, plus a statutory surcharge. Each victim will receive £300, £100 from each of the three defendants.

"At least the victims are going to get the benefit of you not going immediately downstairs (to the court cells)," he told the three.

He also made each subject to 12 months' imprisonment suspended for two years on condition each does 300 hours' unpaid work for the community in the next 12 months.

He warned them if they didn't do the work they would be jailed.

Harris, of Old Orchard, Haxby, Rudkin, of West Avenue, Easingwold, and Rudkin, of Westfield Grove, Wigginton, all pleaded guilty to affray.

The court heard all three are work colleagues and had been on a social night out together at the Stone Roses pub in King Street, central York, on November 21, 2021.

Mr Ward said by the time police arrived, all three had left.

They were tracked down by a police appeal for their identification and all three were arrested.

None of them answered questions in their police interviews.

David Hewitt, appearing for all three defendants, said: "All three show the highest level of remorse."

None of them had been involved in the initial incident and at one stage Harris appeared to have been trying to calm matters down.

“None of these three men set out to be involved in a disturbance like this. They each, to a greater or lesser extent became involved out of misplaced loyalty to others," he said.