TWO teenagers involved in a “cowardly and vicious” bottle attack on a student both have previous criminal convictions.

Bradley Garrett, 18, and Louis Barrett, 19, appeared at Lewes Crown Court where they were sentenced for their roles in attacking Yehsung Kim in Brighton.

Mr Kim was struck in the face with a champagne bottle by Garrett and had a bottle thrown at him by Barrett. Barrett also spouted racist abuse and made racist gestures.

He was jailed for 20 months last week for the attack.

Both men were arrested five days after the incident, and either denied or made no comment to the police. Garrett had claimed to be elsewhere despite appearing upset at the footage.

The teens had been in a Japanese restaurant before the attack, where witnesses heard staff shouting at them to “put a chair down”.

The pair went outside and confronted Mr Kim, who ended up needing £2,000 worth of dental treatment.

Garrett was spared an immediate prison sentence by Judge Stephen Mooney, who said he took into account the fact Garrett was just 15 at the time of the attack, which

was filmed and went viral online.

The judge blamed Barrett for sparking the incident.

Now The Argus can reveal that Garrett committed 16 previous offences while he was a youth, while Barrett was convicted for a bottle attack himself during a fracas in Brighton.

Garrett’s previous convictions were for shoplifting, being drunk and disorderly,

assault and attempted robbery.

Sarah Taite, defending, said Garrett had now turned his life around and has not committed a crime since the attack on Mr Kim in October 2017.

She said her client knew he had committed a very serious offence, but said Garrett, of Pierces Lane, Haywards Heath, had a tough background, with children’s services involved.

Ms Taite said when Garrett was arrested five days after the attack and shown the video of what he had done, he was “disgusted” and said the attack was “sickening”.

Meanwhile Barrett, of Temple Grove, Burgess Hill, has two previous convictions for four offences.

One of those was for racially abusing a passenger on board a train. Then in February this year he was given a suspended sentence for three offences which included injuring a man in a bottle attack .

A large group of youths were fighting outside Primark in Brighton and two men intervened to break up the violence, but Barrett smashed one of them over the head with a bottle.

It was revealed that he had completed 82 hours of unpaid work, leaving more than 145 hours remaining from that sentence.

Marilyn Vitte, defending, said Barrett was “remorseful” for the attack and knew he had behaved in an “abhorrent” way.

The 19-year-old, who has battled mental health issues, has started training as a mechanic at college.

He wanted to put the attack behind him, but was sent to prison for not complying with the suspended sentence.