IT is a sickening craze which combines modern camera phones with old-fashioned bullying - and now "happy slapping" has reached York.

A 15-year-old York girl was slapped repeatedly in a busy McDonald's restaurant at Clifton Moor while the attacker's friend filmed the assault on a mobile phone.

Then the video was circulated among pupils at the victim's York school, piling humiliation on the already distressed teenager.

Now the attacker, also aged 15, and from the Easingwold area, has been ordered to pay her £50 in compensation after admitting assault by beating.

She was also given a 12-month conditional discharge by York Youth Court, with a warning to behave or face being hauled before the court again.

The case is believed to be one of the first incidents of happy slapping in York and North Yorkshire.

Education chiefs and a school head today branded it an unacceptable activity in a civilised society which would not be tolerated.

Mark Ellis, head of education access at City of York Council, said: "It's a form of bullying and assault, and it's unacceptable."

Murray Rose, assistant director access and inclusion, said it was the first case of happy slapping he was aware of in York, and he would support such cases being taken to court.

Coun Carol Runciman, executive member for education, said: "It's the first case I have heard of up here, and I hope it's the last.

"I would condemn it - I view it as a form of bullying."

The head teacher at the victim's school said today that, after being contacted by the victim's parents, it had taken action to support her.

"Fellow pupils had been told that if any of them received the "most unpleasant" images, they should delete them, and they had agreed to do so.

He stressed that mobile phones were banned on the school premises, so that if images had been passed around, this would have taken place outside school.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said no statistics were collated on happy slapping, with other charges being used such as assault, but he added: "We hope it's a fashion that the young people of North Yorkshire will be too sensible to take up."

In the York case, Emma Pearce, prosecuting, said the victim was waiting for food on March 9 when she saw the attacker "giving her evils".

She was then approached, and asked why she had been talking about the defendant, but did not respond. "Without warning, the girl threw a drink over her, slapping her across the face, using both hands in an alternate manner.

"She noticed one of the defendant's friends had effectively videoed it on a mobile phone.

"The victim is under considerable distress because it has been circulated around the school.

"The incident has caused her humiliation."

Mark Thompson, mitigating, said the attacker had no knowledge that the assault was going to be filmed and was not involved in what subsequently happened with the video.

He said the two girls did not attend the same school, but problems between them had been brewing because of comments the defendant thought the other teenager had made about her.

A McDonald's spokesman said staff had responded quickly to the incident, and passed on CCTV footage to local police, with whom they had worked closely.

What is happy slapping?

The happy slapping fad is thought to have started in south London, but has now spread across Europe, with cases reported in the last year in France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden, as well as British cities such as Leeds and London.

It involves an unsuspecting person - usually on their own - being attacked by a person or a gang, while an accomplice videos the assault, often on their camera phone.

It can be more violent than a mere slap, involving offences such as mugging and rape, and the phrase happy slapping has been attacked as grossly inappropriate for such a serious matter.

Updated: 16:17 Tuesday, May 23, 2006