A judge stunned a Courtroom when he told an ASBO yob he "deserved a good kicking" for punching a WPC's private vehicle.

Speaking off-the-cuff, Judge Anthony Scott-Gall told binge drinking thug Dexter Vidal he was "not surprised" the police officer's two grown up sons had confronted him in the street after he attacked their family car.

At a sentencing hearing at Lewes Crown Court, he said: "I'm not surprised he was given a good kicking, it's what he deserved.

"If someone punched my car then I would make sure, if I had two sons, that he was given more of a good kicking."

But, he added: "Possibly not having regard to the job one holds down."

After dealing with the case, the judge turned to the press box and said: "Lest the press think the judge conducts a vigilante campaign against people that terrorise his neighbourhood and his car, he doesn't and they haven't - and I have one son, not two."

Vidal, 20, of Mulberry Close, Eastbourne, took out his frustration on PC Ginny Jupp's car after a late-night row with his pregnant girlfriend who lived next door, causing £400 worth of damage, the court heard.

At an earlier hearing he admitted criminal damage plus an unrelated charge of assault and breaching a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a two-year ASBO.

Vidal insisted it was merely a co-incidence that PC Jupp was the Eastbourne ASBO co-ordinator who had overseen his original order, handed down by Hastings magistrates for harassment and intimidation in April 2008.

Alissa Scott-Beckett, defending, told the court her client had come off worst after tussling with PC Jupp's family over the damaged car in April this year.

She said: "He perhaps got more than he bargained for, receiving injuries himself by Mrs Jupp's family coming out and restraining him.

"Once again the offence was alcohol-fuelled as all of them seem to be. There was not any deliberate targeting."

Vidal, a former hospital cleaner who has previous convictions for disorderly behaviour, resisting a police officer, theft, shoplifting and criminal damage, was arrested after telling PC Jupp's son, Gareth: "You better not be here when I get back."

Judge Scott-Gall had already spared Vidal prison in February 2008 for having two knives in a gang fight, suspending a 12-month prison sentence for two years.

After hearing how Vidal had now stopped drinking, got a job and turned his life around, he gave him one final chance to stay out of jail, deferring sentencing on his latest convictions until March.

He said: "I'm minded to defer sentence to see whether he continues in employment, abstains from drink, keeps the law of the land, that he complies fully with he ASBO and causes no trouble to Mrs Jupp and her family.

"If he stays out of trouble and can convince me that these appalling bouts of binge drinking are in the past then he's going to have to live up to his responsibility as a law-abiding parent.

"Merely blaming drink and the unexpected pregnancy of your partner is no excuse, as you appreciate."

Judge Scott-Gall, 63, has been a circuit judge since 1996.

Three years ago, he blasted an amorous couple for kissing in court, telling them: "Will you two stop that, you're not permitted to snog in court. It's not the back row of the cinema."

The comment has been met with caution by some victim support groups.

Lyn Costello, co-founder of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression, said: “There are certainly some members of the general public who would say ‘well done’ to the judge because people are fed up with yobs.

“But we don’t want to see people go out and confront yobs because people have done that and have ended up dead.

“Also, when you say a ‘good kicking’, how far do we allow to go? It could have tragic consequences.

“I don’t think judges should be encouraging people to go out and give someone a kicking.

“What we should be doing is saying to people call the police and knowing that they are going to turn up.”

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