Judge tells teenagers to read Lord of the Flies

A judge urged two teenagers who viciously attacked a man in the street to read the classic novel Lord of the Flies after he described them as 'acting like wild animals.' Judge John Dixon made the recommendation after hearing how the drunken pair had left a retired police officer's son lying in the road with a shoe pattern embedded in his face.

Jailing the pair for 14 months, he suggested that they should read William Golding's novel. He said: "After you have read it, you will understand. I recommend it." William Thain, 38, was on his way to his parents' home when the thugs pounced, leaving him lying in the road after the brutal attack.

Prosecutor Sarah Jones said: "He was almost unrecognisable because of swelling and the state of his face. "His injuries included a lacerated tongue, a fractured cheekbone, bruising and swelling." He was bedridden for several days and still had difficulty in sleeping.



Police called to the scene heard raised voices from the top of a nearby block of flats and someone shout: "You shouldn?t have done it, you shouldn't have punched him." Inside, they discovered Ricky Johnson, 18, and 16-year-old John Meek in a bedroom and recovered the victim's wallet and mobile phone. DNA tests confirmed his blood on both their trainers, and a chevron pattern left on the victim's face matched that on Meek?s shoes.

Johnson and Meek, both of Southampton, Hants, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and theft. The pair had spent the evening drinking vodka and beer before meeting the victim, who they didn't know. After hearing the details at Southampton Crown Court, Judge Dixon said: "You assaulted and beat him like wild animals."

Golding's novel set during the Second World War sees a group of British schoolboys as the only survivors of a plane crash on a remote deserted island. They start life full of excitement and try to create their own society, but soon the order they try to establish breaks down and the civilised schoolboys become savages. The boys turn against each other, and fighting results in two of them being killed.