THEY caused around £3m damage to a Hampshire school in a late night arson attack.

But a judge has ruled the community who will have to pick up the bill should never know who they are.

Six classrooms were wrecked, other equipment ruined and thousands of teaching hours lost after the two teenagers smashed their way into Thornden School, Chandler's Ford, with a scaffolding pole.

The idea of starting a blaze was brought up at a party when they and friends began chatting about some minor damage which had been caused to the school on an earlier occasion.

After smashing glass in an outside door, the intruders - both aged 17 - then went to a textiles room where one put some fabric on a gas boiler to get the fire going.

Judge David Griffiths, however, refused the Daily Echo's requests to name the pair.

The paper had argued that it would be in the public interest for the culprits to be known and serve as a powerful deterrent to others.

One teenager was given a two-year detention and training order while the other was sent to a young offenders' institution for three years.

Matthew Jewell, prosecuting at Southampton Crown Court, said firefighters eventually got the blaze under control at about 3am but the consequences to the school were substantial, not just in financial terms which amounted to about £3m.

Mr Jewell outlined part of a report from the deputy headmaster Alan Newton stating how the school was closed to its full complement of 1,300 pupils for 16 days after the blaze last November.

Do you think the arsonists should be named? Ring the newsdesk on 023 8042 4522, e-mail newsdesk@soton-echo.co.uk or write to Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge, Southampton SO16 9JX.