TWO teenagers who kicked their way into a house party held by Polish migrant workers in a former pit village have been jailed for 18 months.

The revellers, who worked at a chicken processing plant, were threatened and the intruders - one had a stick or bar and another a knife - threw bottles and glasses, Durham Crown Court heard.

One of the Poles suffered a slight hand injury as he ejected one of them, said Stephen Duffield, prosecuting.

Peter Hunter, 19, and Mark Stanger, 17, were among three men who kicked open the door in Richmond Terrace, Haswell, County Durham, in January.

The court heard that Hunter's 22-year-old sister, Naomi, who joined her brothers in the house, was still inside and attacked a woman, before she was ejected.

The two youths kept banging on the door, broke a glass panel and tried to damage a car belonging to an occupant.

Mr Duffield said it was still not clear how, or why, the trouble started.

Barristers for all three defendants said their clients denied any racial motivation.

But Judge Tim Hewitt, sentencing them, said he strongly suspected there was a racial dimension to the incident.

"This was a scandalous and criminal act that was completely unprovoked," he said.

Peter and Naomi Hunter, both of Richmond Terrace, Haswell, and Stanger, of Farraday Terrace, Haswell, admitted violent disorder.

Stanger admitted a further charge of breaching a two-year anti-social behaviour order imposed in October 2003 forbidding him from causing harassment, alarm or distress in Haswell, for which he was given a further six months in custody. Naomi Hunter was given a 100-hour community punishment order.