A pair of Scottish soldiers have been jailed for the assault of two disabled teenagers which left one of the victims in a coma for three days.

Jason Ferguson, 18, originally from Glasgow, and John Ward, 19, from Fife, targeted the vulnerable youngsters "for entertainment", a court heard.

The pair subjected the teenagers to derogatory abuse before assaulting them. The youngest victim was 16 and deaf, while his 18-year-old friend suffered from autism.

The soldiers were on a drunken night out from their army base in Sennybridge, mid-Wales, when they set upon the teenage victims walking home together.

After being subjected to verbal abuse, which was filmed on a mobile device, the victims were led down an alley where they suffered what the prosecution described as "a brutal and sadistic attack".

The youngest boy was beaten and kicked unconscious by Ferguson as his terrified friend was held back by Ward.

His older autistic friend was then punched, kicked and hit with a terracotta pot from a nearby house before he ran to get help leaving a trail of blood on the street.

The two soldiers then burned their clothing in nearby woodland before heading back to camp after the attack in July last year.

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard how the attack left the younger victim in a coma for three days.

Ferguson, now of Leyland, Lancashire, admitted two counts of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

Ward, of Oakley, Fife, admitted wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and unlawful wounding.

Sentencing Ferguson to a young offenders institution for eight years and eight months and Ward for seven years, Judge Daniel Williams told them: "You saw those boys as entertainment and you saw their differences as reason to torment and bully them and beat them unconscious."

“It was a chilling and sadistic attack. There was gratuitous degradation. Miraculously, there was no long term physical injury."