THREE teenagers who subjected a classmate to a six-hour "happy slapping" ordeal have been spared custody.

Judge Peter Bowers, who described their actions as little short of torture, said locking them up would harm their GCSE studies.

A court was told yesterday that the boy and two girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, rounded on their 14-year-old friend after drinking litres of strong cider during a sleep-over at an older friend's house in County Durham. Their victim was:

* Stripped naked

* Thrown down stairs

* Kicked in the face and punched

* Branded with a cigarette lighter

* Sprayed in his pubic area with an aerosol. The hair was then set alight.

One of the teenager's tormentors also took a photograph of his burnt groin using a mobile telephone camera and showed it around the playground when the gang returned to school the following Monday.

Kelly Embleton, 23, bought the alcohol for the group of secondary school pupils from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, on a Friday night, and locked them in her home when she went out.

At an earlier hearing, it was said Embleton had joined the incident halfway through and had allowed it to continue.

Yesterday, when the four appeared at Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, Judge Peter Bowers told the householder she had behaved disgracefully and added: "You are older but not wiser, I'm afraid."

Embleton, of Skipton Close, Newton Aycliffe, was given 100 hours of community punishment, an 18-month community rehabilitation order and put on a curfew for three months between 8pm and 8am.

The boy and two girls, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the incident, were each given an 18-month supervision order with intensive surveillance and a three-month curfew between 7pm and 7am.

Judge Bowers told them: "I suspect you came today wondering whether you might be going away to custody.

"I am totally entitled to do that because what you did was little short of torturing the boy. Although you were all in drink, he was degraded and now obviously very embarrassed among his schoolfriends."

He added: "If it had been just one prank it would have been enough, but when it went on and on and on for six hours, it was appalling, and to laugh and joke at school made it worse."

Judge Bowers said: "I can't see that custody would have any benefits for any of you. It would probably damage the three teenagers and their GCSEs. You are very lucky to be going home. If you come back to court, you won't."

The four originally also faced accusations of false imprisonment, and one of the girls faced a charge of taking an indecent photograph, but the charges were allowed to lie on file by prosecutors when they admitted the assault.

Rod Hunt, prosecuting, told the court that the Crown Prosecution Service showed an act of mercy by not pursuing the indecency charge because it could have caused problems for the teenagers in the future.

He said the victim's mother had agreed to the move and she had also received an apology from the boy for what he had done to her son.

The boy's barrister, Paul Cleasby, accepted the group had drunk "dreadful quantities" of cider which had changed their characters and personalities that night.

Robin Turton, for one of the girls, said his client was the victim of bullying for many years.

Mr Hunt said the victim has had to change school since the attack which lasted until after 6am the next day.