I'm feeling generous this evening, perhaps as a result of a rather good meal, so I'll give you a quick lesson.

Let's start from a premise, as all good pedagogues are wont to do.  Those marginally human thugs whose revolting image graced The Times recently are oiks of the first water and deserve the contempt of all right thinking men.  The sad thing is that they have a vote, just like yours, and in the spirit of summer armistices, I'll forebear from surmising how they cast it.

Quick Lesson Part One: it is to be assumed that they turned up to Court dressed like the hooligans that they quite obviously are because the cops would have had them banged up pending their appearance and they were arraigned under arrest.  They don't get to go home, or in this case to tent, to change into their finery.  Moral of this part of the lesson: don't shoot your mouth off before knowing the facts.

Quick Lesson Part Two: the presiding Magistrate would have passed sentence based on what was brought in evidence before him.  Unlike the Commenting Classes, Judges and Magistrates don't base themselves on what the media choose to report but on evidence.  Given that the yobs pleaded guilty, on astute legal advice, all the Magistrate had before him was the charge sheet, which presumably related to the bare facts, and thus certainly insufficient to throw the animals into the clink, throwing away the key thereafter.  For a simple bit of disturbance, a €60 fine isn't unheard of.  Moral of this part of the lesson: don't shoot your mouth off before knowing the facts.

Quick Lesson Part Three: we operate under the rule of law, which means all of the above, to which you need to add the following maxim, namely, "Stop fussing".