FOUR teenagers who were jailed for a total of more than 11 years for attacking an innocent window cleaner will each serve only a year behind bars after appealing against their sentence.

The gang of teenagers, all from Blackburn, admitted robbing Ian Dewhurst as he emerged from an off-licence in the town's Granville Road on November 13, 2006.

Mr Dewhurst's teeth were kicked out in the attack and he had several ribs broken.

All four pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court and were sentenced to terms ranging from 30 months to 38 months of youth custody in January of this year.

Three of the youths cannot be named due to their young age, but Yasin Ali Khan, 18, from Preston New Road, Blackburn, who received 30 months, can be identified.

The four young men appealed against the length of their terms at the Court of Appeal in London and each had their sentences reduced to two years, of which they will serve half behind bars.

Lord Justice Thomas, who sat with Mr Justice Forbes and Mr Justice Roderick Evans, said their previous good character, remorse and progress behind bars justified the reductions.

He told how Mr Dewhurst, 47, was left lying injured in the street after the attack by the four youths, one of whom was aged just 14 at the time of the robbery.

They got away with just £10 in cash, but were snared by police because the whole incident was recorded by nearby CCTV cameras.

Allowing their appeals, the judge said it had been wrong to impose different sentences on the four youths, as all had been culpable and delays in pleading guilty by the younger teens were cancelled out by the fact of that youth.

"It seems to us, on all the evidence, that there was one way to approach this matter, and that was that they were all equally guilty in what the judge described as a disgraceful and frightening attack," he said.

"In the circumstances, we consider, taking particular account of the progress they have made in prison, that we can be merciful and reduce the sentence on each of them to a period of 24 months."

After the original sentence Mr Dewhurst said: "The sentence the judge passed is justice in some ways.

"They have been shown this behaviour cannot carry on.

"This was the second time I was attacked in two weeks - who is to say there isn't someone who will act in the same way as them?

"They have affected me in a psychological way but I am pleased with the sentence."