A GANG of teenage thugs who beat up an innocent man when he tried to stop a fight have been locked up for 10 months.

Ryan Hunter, Craig Dobbs and Jake Leach, all from Tottington, punched and kicked the man as he lay helpless in the street following a brawl in Bury.

The trio are now serving their sentences in a young offenders’ institution.

The victim, who was 36 at the time, was in Bury town centre on September 5, 2009, when he witnessed an attack on a young girl.

Hunter’s girlfriend, who was 18 at the time, was leaving a local pub when she saw him kissing another girl at the junction of Tottington Road and Rosewood Avenue. She walked past the pair, who were with a group of other friends, and called her mother to ask to be taken home.

Hunter suddenly approached the girl and punched her in the face before dragging her to the ground by her hair.

The 36-year-old was passing by and he went to intervene, but was attacked by Hunter, of Sheep Gate Drive, Leach, of Harwood Walk, and Dobbs, also of Sheep Gate Drive.

The trio appeared at Manchester Crown Court, charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

Hunter and Leach pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of affray and Dobbs pleaded guilty to ABH.

A fourth man who denies his part in the assault is awaiting trial at Manchester Crown Court on May 23.