THREE members of the same family are starting suspended prison sentences for vicious attacks on members of another family.

Police praised residents of the North Yorkshire town where both families live for helping to convict the Gregories.

But the victims are angry that their attackers are still free to walk the streets.

Father Samuel Edward Gregory, 49, and son Jacob Edward Gregory, 21, attacked pregnant Derri Barker and her husban, Steve, outside a takeaway in Easingwold.

Two other sons, Samuel William Gregory, 23, and Edward Billy Gregory, 20, were on bail at the time accused of a gang attack on Derri’s brother, Scott Reynolds, which left him with a permanently disfigured face, a fractured eye socket and broken ribs and needing metal plates inserted into his jaw.

Edward Gregory was later acquitted at a retrial after one jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent against Mr Reynolds.

His three relatives were all given prison sentences suspended on condition that they commit no other offences for the next 12 months and do 630 hours unpaid work between them.

The younger Samuel Gregory pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm on Mr Reynolds.

Samuel Gregory senior and Jacob Gregory were convicted by a jury of one charge of actual bodily harm for the attack on Derri and Steve Barker. All four live in Long Street, Easingwold.

Mr Reynolds, 35, of Easingwold, said of the sentences: “It’s disgusting. Basically, if someone hadn’t helped me that night, they would just have kicked me to death.”

Derri said of the attack on her and her husband on Good Friday last year: “I was screaming. I was saying I am pregnant, but they just laughed at me.

“It was really, really, horrible. It really was horrendous.”

During the attack, she fell and broke her hand, an injury that has yet to fully heal.

She also had an internal injury close to her unborn son, but he was later born and is a healthy child. Mr Barker suffered head injuries.

PC Paul Southgate, of Easingwold Safer Neighbourhood Team, said of the Good Friday attack: “I would like to thank the many residents of Easingwold for their assistance with the investigation of this nasty and violent incident.

“There is no doubt that without the support from across the whole community, the offenders would not have been brought to justice and the victims given some closure.”

the sentences

• Jacob Gregory, six months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months with 300 hours unpaid work

• The younger Samuel Gregory, 20 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with 150 hours’ unpaid work

• The older Samuel Gregory, four months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months with 180 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £750 prosecution costs