Two teenagers who forced a man to strip in a Bradford park before robbing him of cash and his phone have avoided immediate custody.

The man found the pair, who were both 17 at the time of the offence on September 3 last year, on the Grindr phone app, and met them in Bowling Park.

As they entered a secluded wooded area, the two youths put bandanas over their faces and one pulled out a handgun, which was later found to be a pellet-gun.

He forced the man to his knees and told him to remove his clothes and hand over his phone and money, saying: “If you tell anyone we’ll tell your family.”

After the pair left, the man got dressed and later found them on Bowling Park Drive, from where he called the police.

Both teenagers, now 18, admitted a charge of robbery.

The court heard that both youths had suffered “troubled” childhoods and mental health issues, and had been victims of child sexual exploitation.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said while the robbery offence was “truly wicked”, the case was one that “cries out for intervention rather than custody.”

He said: “These are two men who are as vulnerable as I have ever seen in this jurisdiction. To put it bluntly, they have seen things and had things done to them that are quite shocking.”

The pair were given 21-month sentences in a young offenders institution suspended for two years, up to 35 days rehabilitation, and a six-month curfew.