A Supreme Court judge this week gave two young men a chance to turn their lives around when he gave them probation after they admitted beating a manin Somerset.

Assistant Justice Achibald Warner had stern words on Thursday for Urian Keon Dickerson, 19, of Ely's Harbour, Sandys, and Akil Jones, 20, of Cambridge Road, Sandys as he sentenced them to probation after they pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm earlier this year.

“This is your big chance. Both of you. Turn your life around and stop playing the fool,” he said.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke told Mr. Warner that on the evening of February 1 last year, Police received a report that a man was being beaten up in the Cambridge Road area.

Upon arriving, she said, Police spotted four youths running away from a man who was lying on the ground. At the scene they found a blood-stained cane.

Later that night Police arrested Jones, who admitted to them that he punched and kicked the man, David Sousa.

Dickerson was also apprehended that night. Ms Clarke said he told Police that although he had an air cast on his leg, he kicked the victim twice and admitted that the cane was his.

Mr. Sousa, 48, sustained several lacerations and a fractured wrist.

Both men pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm on May 28 this year.

Before Mr. Warner sentenced the men, Ms Clarke said although she did not recommend a custodial sentence, she felt the community needed to be protected.

“The sentence needs to be reflective of the crime,” she said. Jones and Dickerson faced a maximum of five years' imprisonment.

While Dickerson's lawyer, Larry Mussenden did not object to his client receiving probation, he asked that Mr. Warner consider not imposing a curfew.

“The curfew impedes him from working overtime,” he said. But Mr. Warner dismissed this claim saying that a curfew was not intended to hinder his work, but to keep him away from negative elements.

“He's a wannabe,” said Mr. Warner. “He could not be a gang member, he's only four feet tall.”

The issue of whether the men should be banned from consuming alcoholic and other intoxicating substances was raised as well.

“To ask a 19-year-old to abstain from alcohol is strict,” Mr. Mussenden said.

To which Mr. Warner answered: “This probation is not supposed to be a slap on the wrist.”

And Patrick Doherty, who represented Jones, said that his client had said he wanted to go to school to become an electrician and that his grandfather had a trust fund waiting for him - provided he completed his high school education.

“But he just doesn't seem interested,” said Mr. Warner.

Both men were sentenced to two years probation with strict conditions which included being subjected to drug testing, abstaining from alcohol, refraining from socialising in groups of more than four people.

He told Dickerson specifically: “Stay away from those in Gun Alley. I see them come to this court every week.”