A DISABLED man was tortured by a teenage neighbour and a gang of his friends who broke into his home through a boardedup window. A court heard how the friends from Hartlepool filmed some of their attacks on David Tupman on a mobile phone. Three teenagers were yesterday locked up after they admitted burglary, common assault, harassment and administering a noxious substance. A fourth was given a two-year supervision order with intensive surveillance after he pleaded guilty to all the charges except harassment. Judge George Moorhouse told them: “It seems you took some weird satisfaction or fun from treating this man in the way that you did.” Ian West, prosecuting, described Mr Tupman’s ordeal on January 27 last year, as “torment and torture”. He said the friends targeted him for their own amusement or “because there was nothing worth watching on television”.

Steven Bruce, 19, of Blakelock Gardens, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for eight months, and his brother, Liam, 16, of Colenso Street, received an 18-month detention and training order. Daniel Burnside, 16, of Pine Grove, was given a 12-month detention and training order, and Stuart Neesam, 15, of Waverley Terrace, was given a community sentence.

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