Arson 'took heart out of community'
A gang of youths hanging around the hall were involved in starting the blaze – and captured by closed circuit television cameras.
Police officers recognised a number of them, including Jamie Bentley and Christopher Carr, said Richard Conway, prosecuting.
They hadn't started the fire at Rocester Village Hall themselves, but were involved in fuelling it with paper.
Later, they stamped on the fire and urinated on it and thought they had put it out, but it smouldered and re-ignited.
The blaze damaged the roof, the committee room and other parts of the building. The damage was put at £11,542.
Bentley, aged 19, of Riversfield Drive, and Carr, also 19, of Ashbourne Road, both Rocester, were each given a four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months after admitting arson.
Judge John Maxwell, sitting at Stafford Crown Court, told them: "What you did was reckless in the sense of extreme stupidity. The consequences were to put the village hall out of action for a while, to completely disrupt the activities that would have gone on and the village hall is a really important part of the community.
"For a while, your stupidity took the heart out of the community."
Judge Maxwell also ordered them to do 200 hours' unpaid community work and to pay £600 compensation each to the village hall trustees, plus £100 each costs.
Mr Conway said the hall had to be closed for a while, causing cancellation of the youth club, the pre-school playgroup and a funeral function.
Two other 17-year-olds have been dealt with by a youth court for the arson and given community punishments.
Eugene Hickey, for Carr, a restaurant chef, said: "This was either mad, bad or incredibly stupid. You don't need a psychiatric report to tell you that. This is a group of lads larking around.
Fred Powell, for Bentley, said that at the time, Bentley was having a problem with alcohol and peer pressure.
Comment on this story