THEY chased their victim like a pack of animals deliberately hunting their prey.

Armed with weapons including road signs, bricks, a steel fence post, a cosh made from a bike chain and a sock filled with stones, a golf club and door handles which they found in a skip, they carried out the vicious unprovoked beating.

Victim Mohammed Quarashe's only crime was that he couldn't run away fast enough.

The studious teenager, who had ambitions to go to university and become an accountant, was left unconscious in the road after being repeatedly beaten around his head and body - leaving him with injuries including brain damage that have changed his life forever.

Today, the gang of ten thugs responsible have all received their punishments at court - with the ringleader of the attack, Errol Jobarteh, jailed for eight years. His accomplice Marvin Geddes, who was 15 at the time of the attack, was named by the court only after the Daily Echo successfully had an identification ban overturned. He was given an 18-month detention and training order.

It was around 10pm on a hot, balmy summer's evening on July 17 last year when Mohammed, now 16, was walking along Graham Road in the Newtown/Nicholstown area of Southampton, and his attackers pounced.

Running along the road, they swung and hurled their weapons and laid blows as Mohammed fell to the ground underneath a tree.

Not satisfied, many of the gang who had walked away then turned around and went back for more, with the assault only ending when an implement was thrown through the back windscreen of a parked car and it's alarm began to ring out.

The sickening attack was watched by scores of scared residents from their windows and only ended when a driver pulled into the street to see the melee unfolding.

It is those people, horrified by what they had witnessed, that broke their silence and united against the thugs terrorising their neighbourhood.

In what has been one of Southampton's biggest police operations, more than 100 officers were involved in getting the gang brought to justice.

A zero tolerance approach was agreed and teams were drafted in from around Southampton and Hampshire as the battle to capture those responsible got under way.

Detective Inspector Kath Barnes, based at Bitterne CID, said: "It was touch and go in the beginning as to whether Mohammed Quarashe would survive. We were told that it was a very serious head injury and that Mohammed might die. Potentially we were dealing with a murder enquiry and we treated it that way."

The attack happened not far from the Newtown Youth Centre, at the corner of Exmoor Road.

The centre is well used by local youths and many of those who took part in the vicious beating of Mohammed had been caught on CCTV cameras hanging around outside the centre earlier that day.

It followed previous incidents including trouble over a football match As police responded to a series of 999 calls made around 10.20pm, they found Mohammed laid out motionless on the ground. His brother, who had gone to pick him up and take him home, was caught up in the chaotic scenes and was also injured.

Earlier that night, officers had visited the area on a number of occasions following reports of tensions between the gangs which, Southampton Crown Court heard, called themselves the "home" and "away" teams.

Officers and paramedics pulled in to Graham Road and were confronted with the carnage the gang had left behind. In the distance they saw people fleeing the scene and all around them discarded weapons used to beat Mohammed within an inch of death.

A heavy police presence was made on the streets to calm any possible further disturbances while detectives set about identifying those responsible.

Video experts were used to examine the CCTV footage - using images captured in daylight to help determine whether the same people were involved in the attack and pick them out.

There had been issues after a heated football match which involved some rivalry and an incident hours before Mohammed was beaten that involved youths having a confrontation with a knife.

DI Barnes said: "I think Mohammed Quarashe was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think it's fair to say he couldn't run as fast as the others.

"The group who did this to him went there looking for a fight.

"It's amazing he has recovered as well as he has. He suffered injuries to the front of his brain, but a week later he was walking wounded and back up on his feet. He has brain injuries but can speak normally but his life now and his life before this attack are completely different. His prospects as a young man have completely altered."