The leaders of a hoodie gang have been jailed for an unprovoked attack on a teenage boy who was battered with a baseball bat and threatened with a gun.
Luke Paterson and Jack Morris picked on the 16-year-old victim after pulling into a car park where he was playing with friends and getting out of a car armed with the weapons.
Morrison swung the bat into the teenager's face with such force it shattered his palate and nose while Morris held a realistic looking gun to his head and threatened to shoot.
The victim was kicked as he lay in agony on the ground and the two attackers were driven away by another member of their gang.
The 16-year-old had just finished a long course of dental treatment to straighten his teeth and had braces removed hours before the attack. He was left with his entire mouth smashed in and needing extensive reconstructive work.
He has been left frightened to go out and with a phobia of anyone wearing hoodies because they remind him of his attackers, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Paterson, aged 18, of Bucks Close, Bovey Tracey, and Morris, aged 18, of Templer Place, Bovey Tracey, both admitted causing grievous harm. Paterson admitted having a baseball bat as an offensive weapon and Morris having a BB imitation firearm with intent to cause fear.
Their getaway driver Ashley Parnell, aged 19, of Brimley Vale, Newton Abbot admitted abetting them by taking them to and from the scene of the attack at Hackney Retail Park in Kingsteigton.
Paterson and Morris were both jailed for two years in a Young Offenders' Institution and Parnell was curfewed for six months and ordered to receive supervision.
Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, told them:"All three of you arrived in a car park in a car driven by Parnell. In that car were a baseball bat and a BB gun.
"You set on a young boy of 16 who was there with his friends. He was a stranger to you who told you he did not know you.
"He tried to move away but Paterson and Morris circled him and Paterson hit him across the legs from behind with the bat. Morris put a gun to his head and threatened to shoot him.
"I am told it was a realistic gun and he must have been very frightened indeed. Paterson then hit him full in the face and hard as he could with the bat, rendering him unconscious.
"He suffered a fracture to his nose and the roof of his mouth and several of his teeth were displaced. Morris kicked him which he was unconscious on the ground in a thoroughly cowardly way.
"The effects on the victim have been significant and long lasting but are not surprising. This was an attack by two of you. There may have been a third person there who did not take part.
"This offence involved two of you who were armed with weapons together attacking a boy of 16. It is utterly disgraceful and extremely serious criminal conduct."
Miss Janice Eagles, prosecuting, said the victim was playing with friends when the attackers pulled up at the car park. The other boys got away but the 16-year-old was trapped, punched and beaten with the bat.
They then fled in Parnell's car which he abandoned nearby but he was traced after police kept watch on it and saw his mother come to pick it up. Neither weapon was found.
She said Paterson claimed he attacked the boy because he had been bullied by him but the victim went to a different college and did not know either of the attackers.
Miss Eagles quoted from a Victim Impact Statement in which the boy said he had been left traumatised, afraid to go out and with a fear of anyone wearing a hoodie.
She said:"He had completed a course of dental treatment that day and had the braces taken out of his mouth. He spoke about his shock and upset about having all the hard work to straighten his teeth undone ruined just hours later."
Mr Ben Darby, for Morris, Mr Adrian Chaplin, for Paterson, and Mr William Parkhill, for Parnell, all said their clients had admitted their guilt at the earliest possible stage and felt remorse for what they had done.
They had all been very young at the time of the attack last November and their families are shocked by their involvement in such serious violence.
