THREE teenagers have been locked up for their role in a series of “wicked” street robberies committed last Christmas in Bradford city centre.

The youths, who cannot be named due to their age, were involved in a spate of offending over a six-day period, targeting victims for high-value mobile phones and cash cards.

Those attacked were repeatedly punched and stabbed, with one man shot in the face with an air gun.

Bradford Crown Court heard that two of the defendants were aged 15 at the time of the offences, with one just 14.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie said one of the 15 year-olds had been involved in all five robberies, with the other two youths both involved in two incidents separate of each other.

The court heard that on Christmas Day last year, the two 15 year-olds were part of a five-strong gang that attacked a 24 year-old on Ivegate as he was walking home from work.

After the man was kicked to the ground and hit in the face, one of the 15 year-old defendants “stabbed him with a pointed instrument” 12 times while the other rifled through his jacket.

The man was then pinned to a wall and repeatedly stabbed again, this time to the thigh.

After stealing his wallet and works phone, the man said the gang “didn’t have a care in the world as they walked away.”

The man suffered three broken ribs, numerous puncture wounds, and bruising to his lung, with the attack leaving him extremely “distressed” and off work for two weeks.

The following day, the same two defendants robbed a 14 year-old boy who had been shopping in The Broadway, leading him away from a group of friends to the steps of Bradford Cathedral.

They threatened to stab him unless he handed over a new £650 iPhone which he had received as a Christmas present the previous day.

On December 27, one of the 15 year-olds and the 14 year-old jumped a man walking near Forster Square train station, pulling him to the ground under one of the old railway arches.

He was punched in the face and cut in the neck before he handed over his £400 phone and wallet, with the two attackers then making several attempts to use his debit cards at various city centre shops.

In the early hours of December 30, the 15 year-old involved in all of the robberies was part of a group who targeted a man walking towards a city nightclub.

He was repeatedly punched until he handed over his wallet, with the group he was with told “you’ll have your teeth bashed in if you try and help your friend.”

Later that day, the 15 year-old and the 14 year-old, wearing hoods, targeted a man walking down a city centre alleyway, with one producing what appeared to be a black metal handgun.

The man, who had recognised that the weapon was not a proper firearm but a BB gun, tried to wrestle the gun away from the youth but was struck to the side of the head.

He handed over his phone, but said he didn’t have a wallet on him. One of the youths then fired the air gun in the man’s face, with a ball-bearing striking him between the nose and mouth.

The 15 year-old involved in all five street attacks pleaded guilty to multiple counts of robbery, plus unlawful wounding and the possession of a pointed article.

The other 15 year-old admitted robbery, plus a number of other offences committed between October and December last year.

The court heard that on November 4, he was part of a gang who stole a high-value Audi from an address on Wood View Grove, Brighouse, later caught driving the vehicle back towards Bradford.

He admitted charges of burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and driving without insurance, alongside offences of interference with a motor vehicle and going equipped for theft arising out of other incidents.

He also pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assaulting a police constable after smashing a window of his school on December 6 and then spitting in the face of an officer who came to speak to him.

Mr Ritchie said that the 14 year-old boy, while on bail after pleading guilty to the robberies, was also to be sentenced for assault with intent to rob and the possession of an offensive weapon in relation to an incident on March 28, when he “roundhouse-kicked” a man to the ground on Sticker Lane.

While telling the man to empty his pockets, he hit him over the head “at least six times” with a glass hammer, causing cuts that required hospital treatment.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told the trio they had engaged in “pack” violence and behaved in a “feral” manner.

He said: “For your families, this is a day of nightmares, to see their sons in this predicament. I want you to confront you being wicked and bad. You have to get real. The courts will view, regardless of age, offending of this enormity and outrageousness extremely seriously.

“These are very grave crimes. You are all, not withstanding your youth, dangerous.”

The two 15 year-olds, both now 16, were given five-year sentences of youth detention, with the 14 year-old, now aged 15, given a four-year sentence.