THREE men will appear before a crown court judge next month after they were charged in connection with a riot at a young offenders institution.

Cade Barker, Liam Browitt and Adam Rochelle are jointly charged with taking part in a prison mutiny at Deerbolt, in Barnard Castle, on March 8 this year.

They are also jointly charged with causing grievous bodily harm to Liam Stoyles and assaulting and unlawfully imprisoning Asim Shah.

The disturbance, which lasted several hours, only ended following the intervention of specially trained prison officers and led to at least one inmate being hospitalised.

Fires were set in cells, pool balls hurled at staff and thousands of pounds worth of damage caused.

The trio were all scheduled to appear before magistrates in Peterlee via video link, but only 21-year-old Mr Rochelle, who is being held in Holme House Prison, Stockton, was present.

He was told that the matters were too serious for magistrates to deal with and was remanded in custody until an appearance at Durham Crown Court on August 11. There was no application for bail.

Asked by the chair of the bench if he understood what was happening to him, he replied: "Yes".

The court heard how 19-year-old Mr Barker, who is being housed in Durham Prison, had refused to appear for the hearing. He too will appear at Durham Crown Court on the same date.

Legal representatives for 20-year-old Mr Browitt, of Hindley Prison, in Wigan, Lancashire, indicated by way of a letter that they did not plan to appear at the magistrates court and there would be no application for bail for their client.

At full capacity Deerbolt holds about 500 young offenders, aged between 18 and 21, drawn from across the North of England.

Its current governor, Gavin O’Malley, replaced Gabrielle Lee in the post earlier this year.