Thursday, August 18 2005 10:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: A teenage member of a white gang which attacked three Asian schoolboys, beating two of them unconscious, has been jailed for 16 months by a judge who likened the attack to 'wolves seeking, stalking and chasing their prey.'

One of the boys was son of Asgher Ali, 40 who had come in London from Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1980s.

Eighteen-year-old James Peters was in a gang of up to 100 youths, who hunted and cornered the children, aged 11 and 14, playing close to their school.

Two 11-year-old boys were beaten to the ground and a boy of 14, who had stepped in to help his friends, was punched, hit with a log, stamped on and kicked unconscious.

The attackers kept shouting racist abuse through the assault, the court was told.

Peters, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of the beatings with four accomplices, but had fled court during a break in earlier legal proceedings.

District Judge Alan Berg condemned the 'unbridled racist thuggery,' saying Peters had shown 'no mercy.'

"You behaved like a pack of wolves, seeking, stalking and chasing your prey. You showed no mercy. Indeed, you have showed little or no contrition or remorse," the judge said.

He also rejected claims that the Asian children had provoked the gang as an 'utter distortion'.

"You were part of a gang, an important and active part, who attacked the students simply because they were Asian," he said.