TWO Southampton teenagers who targeted an artist for a single "happy slapping" attack but who instead killed him were today locked up for a total of five and a half years.

The boys, aged 16 and 14, planned to slap, punch and have filmed on a mobile phone the assault on Peter Ramsey, 40, in Green Park Road, Millbrook, Southampton.

But the attack resulted in Mr Ramsey hitting his head on the road and suffering fatal brain damage, dying three days later, Winchester Crown Court heard today.

Sentencing, the judge Mr Justice Irwin said: "You two killed Peter Ramsey. You did not intend to do that or to cause him really serious harm. But you killed him nonetheless and that event was made worse by your intention to record the event on the telephone as if to boast of it rather than be ashamed of it.

"It was a senseless death. It was the end point to the harassing and bullying and taunting in which you played a part."

The two youths both admitted manslaughter in October last year.

The 16-year-old got three years detention.

The 14-year-old, who was just 13 at the time of the attack, received two and a half years.

The judge refused to lift reporting restrictions which means both youths cannot be named.

For more see tomorrow's Daily Echo