A GANG of youths who laughed as they videoed a dying man were branded monsters by a judge.

All five were sentenced to periods of detention for their treatment of former baker Roger Winfield, which included nudging him closer to a campfire so he was centimetres from the flames, putting a laxative in his mouth and decorating his face with cracker biscuits.

They also put a can of beer on the fire in the hope it might explode, and put a cigarette in his mouth before drawing on his face.

Mr Winfield was found lying in a tent in a field at White Rose Football Club, in Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Selby, North Yorkshire, on April 15 last year. Four days later, he died in Leeds General Infirmary as a result of a brain injury.

York Youth Court heard that Mr Winfield had been out drinking with a group of youngsters in the village's Eversley Park Centre the day before he was found.

He had even bought them cans of alcohol. Part of the group decided to camp out for the night in the field.

On his way to the field, it is believed Mr Winfield, 40, fell and hit his head, which is thought to have caused the injury that killed him.

Solicitors for the youths, Michael Woolley, 17, and 16-year-olds Jamie Hargreaves, Kurt Jordan, Ryan Meaney, all from Sherburn-in-Elmet, and 16-year-old Joe Brook, from a nearby village, stressed that there was no suggestion they had caused Mr Winfield's death, and that they were not aware he had been injured when the acts took place.

They said the youngsters, who had been drunk and had smoked cannabis, were genuinely sorry for what they had done.

The incidents were videoed by Woolley using a friend's camcorder. The gang sat with heads bowed as 30 minutes of the footage was shown in court.

Three of the youths - Brook, Meaney and Woolley - admitted intending to cause harassment, alarm or distress. Jordan and Hargreaves had denied the charge, but were convicted after a trial.

Hargreaves, Woolley and Brook were each given an eight-month detention and training order; Meaney was given 12 months, and Jordan four months.