Jail for thugs who infuriated judge

Three men whose crime made a judge "too angry" to sentence them are finally starting their jail terms.

The drink-fuelled gang launched a vicious and unprovoked attack on two students as they walked in a city centre.

Judge Nigel Van Der Bijl told them the assaults had made his blood boil. "This is the kind of loutish behaviour that makes our towns unlivable," he said.

He delayed sentencing James Goldfarb, Stephen Nolan, both 25, and Arron Wiles, 23, until he had calmed down. But the case was taken on by another judge and the men were today starting jail terms of more than two years each.

The three had attacked students Jamie Crowson, 21, and Andy Whelan, 20, in Canterbury just before Christmas.

They had pleaded guilty to the assaults at Canterbury Crown Court last month and were sentenced by Judge Ellison Nash, who told them: "I am determined to demonstrate that people who get involved in this kind of loutish behaviour do not go unpunished."