Teenage girls sentenced after violent rampage at Eastbourne McDonald's

Customers and an employee at the Terminus Road restaurant were kicked and punched in the vicious unprovoked attack around 9.15pm on April 17.

Eventually a man was able to remove the girls from the restaurant, but was then subjected to further vicious attacks by the three, involving the use of a bottle and a knife.

The man was able to defend himself and disarm one of the suspects by tackling her to the floor, bringing a swift end to the violence.

Paramedics went to the scene but none of the victims needed hospital treatment.

Police arrived and the three local girls, two now aged 17 and one, Annabelle Woodhams, now aged 18, of East Beeches Road, Crowborough, were arrested and later charged.

One of the 17-year old girls, from Eastbourne, was sentenced at Hastings Magistrates Court on October 18 to four months imprisonment, having pleaded guilty to affray and threatening a person with a knife in a public place. The knife was ordered to be confiscated.

The other 17-year old girl, also from Eastbourne, appeared at Hastings Magistrates Court on 18 October, and was given a Youth Rehabilitation Order, having pleaded guilty to affray. The CPS offered no evidence at court on a further charge of unlawful possession of a knife.

Woodhams was given a Community Order and a Youth Rehabilitation Order after pleading guilty at Hastings Magistrates’ Youth Court on September 20 to affray.

PC Nikki Desouza said, “We would like to thank all the people involved as witnesses and victims in the fracas for their support of the investigation, which helped us bring the suspects to justice.

“It is still not clear exactly why the defendants behaved as they did, but all had been drinking and this clearly helped fuel their rampage.”