These two vicious attackers - who laid into a defenceless man on the ground - walked free from court laughing and celebrating their freedom.
Corey Savory and Thomas Vernon were sombre in the dock and Savory appeared to be in tears at times during their sentencing hearing.
The 23-year-olds’ mood changed abruptly once they learned their fate.
They left Teesside Crown Court grinning with arms aloft and thumbs up, unable to contain their delight at receiving suspended jail terms for a “ferocious” assault.
Just minutes before a judge had accepted they showed “genuine remorse” for their crime.
The victim was smoking, chatting and waiting for a friend outside a pub on Redcar High Street when he was hit to the face.
The bleeding man turned and saw stranger Vernon, the only person near him, after the “completely unprovoked” strike.
He protested and shouted at Vernon as he was shocked, upset and angry at being attacked.
The man followed Vernon and his friend Savory, who were gesturing at him, as they ran to a home on High Street.
He wanted to know why he had been hit and threatened, said prosecutor Jenny Haigh.
He repeatedly kicked the door after the pair went inside.
Seconds later, a third unknown man came up behind him and hit him, knocking him to the ground.
Savory and Vernon then attacked him at about 11.35pm on March 30 last year.
He said he was kicked to the head and he believed he lost consciousness.
In the courtroom, Savory put his head in his hands and did not watch as CCTV footage of the assault was played.
Ms Haigh said Savory kicked the victim’s torso and punched him three times as he tried to defend himself, then Vernon punched him four times.
He was treated in hospital for a two-inch cut to his forehead which needed stitches, along with bruising and swelling.
The man later said he had a permanent scar which was a “constant reminder” of the attack.
He said the assault contributed to him losing his job and he felt as if people stared at him in the street.
He told how he feared another attack as friends of his assailants had called him a “grass”.
Vernon, of Wilton Bank, Saltburn, and Savory, of High Street, Redcar, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm.
Vernon denied kicking the victim and Savory said he tried to kick but it did not connect.
Defence advocates described their behaviour as unacceptable, reprehensible and “utterly inappropriate”.
Graham Brown, defending Vernon, said it was a “minor spat” and “Mexican stand-off” during which Vernon called the police.
It escalated when the random, unconnected third party felled the victim, he told the court.
The two men did not expect this but took advantage of the situation in a joint assault which lasted 30 seconds.
Mr Brown said Vernon had seen the victim in the 11 months since and there had been no trouble.
He said Vernon was a single man doing offshore training and he was “petrified” by the court process.
Prison would have a “lifelong impact” on him and he could be a constructive member of society, added the defence advocate.
The Probation Service said he was a “medium risk” of reoffending.
Uzma Khan, defending Savory, said: “They were provoked into reacting and defending their property.
“That went too far and it was perhaps opportunistic when the victim was lying on the floor.
“There was no premeditation. They never set out to cause any injury.”
She said Savory never wanted trouble but claimed the victim made comments to him in a pub.
He said Savory tried to defuse the situation and the victim became the “aggressor” when the pair retreated to the house.
Savory never expected it to go beyond verbal abuse, added Ms Khan.
She said he was “utterly remorseful” and willing to consider restorative justice with a direct apology to the victim.
He suffered from depression and there was a risk of self-harm and suicide.
Savory had moved away from a criminal lifestyle in recent years and was supported by his family.
The judge, Recorder Sarah Mallett, did not accept that the victim was the aggressor.
She told the two: “You could simply have returned to your home, shut the door and stayed there.
“You could have and should have retreated back inside. But you didn’t do that.
“He was already on the floor and he wasn’t doing anything provocative.
“They are nasty injuries.
“This was a ferocious attack by two men who had the advantage of having their victim put on the ground for them by a third party.”
She gave each an eight-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with supervision.
Each was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victim.
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