A "PACK of animals" who launched an horrendous attack on fairground worker Mitchell Barker in Tamworth's Castle Grounds have been given jail sentences totalling more than 40 years.

Three ringleaders convicted by jurors, Adam Ball, John-Paul Gallagher and Anthony Sheppard, have been caged indefinitely for public protection, with 10 years in jail apiece for the crime.

Three other defendants, Paul Cookson, Sam Brookes and Mark Stearne, found guilty of a lesser offence of violent disorder, each got three years, but Brookes was also given consecutive sentences totalling 28 months for an assault and an assault with intent to rob.

Judge Mark Eades said the gang had acted "like a pack of animals" in attacking 20-year-old Mr Barker in May last year.

He was left unconscious in Tamworth's Castle Grounds and was in a coma in Good Hope hospital for six days.

Ball, Gallagher and Sheppard were all found guilty at Stafford Crown Court in May this year of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on Mr Barker, who was kicked, punched and stamped on.

The jury heard evidence via video-link cameras from two teenage girls, one aged 14 and the other 15, who cannot be named, who saw the gang attack Mr Barker.

When the gang appeared back before the court on Friday, August 20, for sentence, Darron Whitehead, prosecuting, told Judge Eades the girls had suffered intimidation before they gave their evidence. They had been threatened by telephone, by text message and on the internet, "not by the defendants but by people who know about the case".

Mr Whitehead said one of the girls had tried to take her own life in September last year.

Judge Eades told the gang of six: "For (Mr Barker's) 'crime' of answering you back, you responded like a pack of animals. He was knocked to the ground, mercilessly kicked, punched and stamped on and left for dead.

"What contempt you have for your fellow man. Many of you seem to blame him for standing up to you. This perverted morality disfigures our society and is like a cancer.

"Now you must face the music.

"These courts will act without mercy... to ensure our public places are not turned in to no-go zones."

A probation officer who prepared a pre-sentence report on Sheppard concluded "he committed this offence for pure entertainment and started this attack for the sheer thrill of it."

The report on Gallagher said he had "no respect for authority" while Ball was also a high risk of causing people serious harm.

Judge Eades ruled all three should be caged for public protection because of the risk they posed to the public. He gave them the maximum sentence allowed under current sentencing guidelines. However, after serving five years they will not be automatically released. They will be eligible to apply for parole, but will not be freed until the Parole Board considers they are no longer a danger.

Even if they gain secure release, they will be on licence for the rest of their lives.

Sheppard, aged 23, of Trefoil; Gallagher, aged 23, of Beyer Close; Ball, aged 20, of Ferrers Road; Cookson, aged 18, of Ivatt; Stearne, aged 19, of Edale and Brookes, aged 20, of Beechwood Crescent, all denied the charges.

Philip Bradley, for Gallagher, told the court: "He has begun to have the insight in to what has brought him here and not to excuse himself."

David Munro, for Sheppard, said: "It was casual violence of an extreme nature, but not premeditated."

Sukhdev Garcha, defending, said Ball had fallen in with a crowd who began to commit offences.

Stefan Kolodynski, for Cookson, said his client had not been the prime mover in the spontaneous violence.

Jane Sarginson, defending, said Brookes recognised his behaviour had been "utterly appalling" while Stephen Thomas, for Stearne said he had committed no more offences between May last year and August this year.