A MAN who was beaten up as he tried to help a robbery victim has welcomed the prison term handed to his attacker.

Supermarket worker Fraser Kettle stepped in when a group of teenagers stole a mobile phone and other belongings from a young man on Hythe Hill, Colchester.

He began walking with the victim to get help at a pub, but was then set upon himself by a robber who threw him to the ground and stole his rucksack.

His assailant, a 17-year-old youth, was last week sentenced to four years in a young offenders’ institution.

Mr Kettle, 22, said he was pleased to finally get justice after the incident in December 2008.

He recalled how the Clacton youth, who was 16 at the time, had attacked him without warning.

Mr Kettle said: “I was walking down the bus lane section at the bottom of the hill, when I saw this lad with a group of his mates.

“I went to see if he was all right, and they said someone had taken his phone and belongings.

“There was a pub up the road so I started walking him up there. All of a sudden there was a group of lads around me and I was getting my head kicked in.

“By the time I got up they had gone.”

Mr Kettle managed to get to the pub, where staff called the emergency services.

He said: “I had a bruise on my face, a black eye and a load of cuts. I got treated at the scene by a paramedic, but luckily I was OK.”

As well as the robbery, the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court to three years for an unrelated burglary, to be served at the same time.