A JUDGE has locked up two drunks who attacked a disabled driver, while his wife and a friend looked on in horror.

The fracas happened late at night by a set of traffic lights in Shirley, Southampton, after the victim, Gordon Rowland, began reversing his car, in the hope of changing the lights to green.

He then heard a bang on the side of his car and someone shouting, "Are you trying to run me over?"

Charles Thomas, prosecuting at the city crown court, said trouble flared when Mr Rowland got out of his car to remonstrate.

There was disagreement about who threw the first punch.

But after Stephen McCarthy got up from the ground, he and Glynn Castle launched a joint attack on Mr Rowland, who was kicked and punched while lying on the road.

Eventually Mr Rowlands managed to drive off and was treated for abrasions and bruising by his doctor. His car had suffered more than £800 damage from being kicked.

Police arrested the pair nearby - labourer McCarthy, 17, of Capt-ain's Place, Southampton, and dock worker Castle, 20, of Alder-moor Avenue, Southampton, admitted causing actual bodily harm. Both had previous convictions for violence and had been drinking that night.

McCarthy, who spent two weeks on remand, also pleaded guilty to criminal damage, and was sent to a young offenders' institute for ten months.

The judge took the unusual step of naming the youth.

He said: "The public have a right to know who he was.''

Colin McCarraher, defending, said McCarthy felt disgrace and admitted he would not have liked being in the victim's position.

"It has been a great shock to him and brought him up sharp," said Mr McCarraher. "He is immature for his age and someone easily led in the past. Whenever he has offended, it has been with other youngsters."

Adrian Fleming, defending Castle, said he had not kicked Mr Rowland but had punched three times when he thought McCarthy was getting the worse of the fracas.

"After he was pulled off by Mrs Rowland, he took no further part," he said.

Castle, who had served two previous custodial sentences, could not complain at receiving a third for six months.

But Mr Fleming said: "There is a danger he will come out perhaps a little harder but perhaps not the wiser.''