A JUDGE branded two brothers neighbours from hell as he jailed them for going on a rampage in the street when they were asked to turn their music down.

Jamie Dodds, 25, and Daniel Walker, 18, “flew out of the house screaming like idiots” when a neighbour asked them to quieten down at their mother’s house in Broomhill, Stanley, Durham Crown Court was told.

The neighbour was hit a number of times with a metal bar by Dodds as Walker waved a piece of wood around. The brothers then armed themselves with knives and brandished them, jabbing them at fearful neighbours. Passing sentence at Durham Crown Court, Judge Jonathan Carroll said: “You were driving the community to distraction playing relentlessly loud music through the day into the night and into the early hours causing considerable inconvenience to your neighbours.

“On July 21, you were just doing it all over again, with the music going on 9.30 in the morning. By 11pm your neighbours had just as much as they could possibly ever bear.”

He added: “You both armed yourselves from the outset and decided you would bully your neighbours into submission.”

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, said Dodds had also punched a women in the face, before Walker came out armed with knives and gave one to his brother.

When a neighbour came out to rescue his dog after his gate was kicked open, Dodds swung the knife at him, catching him between the eyebrows and causing a 2cm cut.

The judge said: “That knife wound is a relatively small cut. But it’s not the size of the cut that matters it’s the location. It was no more than a centimetre from his eye – you were that close to taking somebody’s sight. That is an extremely serious offence.

“You still didn’t back off and were determined to behave like bullying yobs imposing your will on the neighbours.”

As neighbours hid behind a fence, one or both of the brothers set about damaging a car, slashing the tyres, scratching the paintwork and breaking its windows.

Judge Carroll said: “What is particularly unpleasant and shows the character of you (Dodds) is when the police officer un-handcuffed you and put you into your cell and when he turned his back you took a running kick into the small of his back.”

Mark Stiles, mitigating for Dodds, said his client had a childhood “peppered with violence and neglect and a litany of abuse” and that he was remorseful about his actions on the night.

Graeme Cook, mitigating for Walker, said his client had been through the care system as result of his mother’s neglect, though it did not excuse what had happened.

Dodds and Walker both pleaded guilty to affray and possessing a knife, while Dodds admitted further charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

Dodds of Broomhill, Stanley, was jailed for three years and two weeks.

Walker of Wynyard Court, Hartlepool, was jailed for two years and a month.

Both brothers, who had moved in with their mother shortly before the incident, were given a restraining order barring them from returning there for ten years.