A JUDGE has slammed binge drinking culture and said the public are fed up with the late-night violence it causes.
Judge Phillip Wassall branded two young friends as drunken thugs after hearing how stones and refuse bins were thrown during a clash in a centre of Exmouth.
Michael Unitt and Sam Harlow were part of a group of youths who set on three innocent by-standers who were eating take away food at 3 am, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Bicton College student Unitt, aged 22, of Phear Avenue, Exmouth, and jobless Harlow, aged 21, of Fore Street, Budleigh Salterton, admitted affray. Unitt also admitted causing actual bodily harm in a different incident.
Unitt was jailed for seven months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work. Harlow was jailed for six months, suspended for two years, curfewed at weekends for three months, and ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work.
Judge Wassall told them: "People of your age have to understand that offences like this must be treated seriously because they cause such problems in towns like Exmouth and the public have had enough of it.
"Ordinary decent people on a night out are entitled not to have to witness this sort of drunken violence, which must have been an appalling and alarming sight."
