A MAN who took matters into his own hands after yobs plagued his village now has to pay THEM compensation.Former window cleaner Wayne Mann "lost it" after teenagers tore round on bikes near waste ground at 11 pm.

A MAN who took matters into his own hands after yobs plagued his village now has to pay THEM compensation.

Former window cleaner Wayne Mann "lost it" after teenagers tore round on bikes near waste ground at 11 pm.

After one of the youths rode straight at him Mann picked up a branch and hit four of the group, a court heard.

Mann, of Watson Way, Alderton, admitted assaulting the youngsters and damaging two bikes.

After the case he told The Star: "I should not have done what I did but people are fed up with yobbish behaviour.

"It is just lack of consideration.

"You are polite and ask them to not do this, but after a while you get annoyed by it. They may stop that night, but just start again. I have been woken up numerous times.

"It is not just bikes. We have a nice doctors' surgery and that was trashed, we had the village hall vandalised by teenagers putting paper in the sink and putting taps on, although I am not saying that these four are responsible for this.

"We are on a peninsular so police don't usually come round that way."

The court heard Mann was woken up after the four were riding two bikes on the recreation ground in Alderton village.

Prosecutor Gareth Davies told South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court, in Ipswich: "Having experienced on previous occasions the same sort of behaviour he lost his temper and armed himself with a fairly substantial branch."

In the semi-darkness he went into the group of four boys and swung the branch around.

Two sustained cuts and bruises and the third a suspected broken rib, although there was no medical evidence produced to support this. The court heard a fourth was punched and his injuries included tenderness to his left eye, a tender left jaw and chipped tooth.

"It happened out of the blue," said Mr Davies. "It was quite clearly a shock to these youths."

Dino Barricella, said youths have caused annoyance and a nuisance in the village and in the past a barn has been burned down and the village hall vandalised, although there was no suggestion the same youths were responsible for this. It is not known where the youths involved in ths incident were from.

He added: "Bikes on the recreation ground have not only annoyed Mr Mann, but the whole neighbourhood.

"These youths (the victims) are the first to acknowledge that Mann has approached them and been polite in the past and asked them to stop but with no great joy."

He told the court on the night Mann had gone to bed but was woken up by shouting and swearing.

"Mann had gone out to confront the youths in the past and stumbled on the branch. One drove directly at him and he picked up the branch in self-defence.

"In sheer frustration he fully admits he lost it. He is not a violent man but it was in sheer frustration after being provoked by these lads against a background of yobbery."

Fifteen minutes after the incident the court heard a stone and chair was flung at his home.

Bench chairwoman Anne Walker gave him a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £10 to each victim and £55 costs.

The court heard 39-year-old Mann was genuinely sorry for his actions.

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