Civil disorder on a massive scale involving scores of people.

Some carrying weapons including iron bars, bricks and knives.

Houses and cars were badly damaged and residents watched helplessly as their sleepy village was transformed into a violent battleground.

This week a 16-year-old Halifax girl was given 16-hours reparation and ordered to pay £75 compensation and £42 costs for her part in this shameful episode.

A night when goodwill to all men was lost in a haze of booze.

She was neither instigator nor one of the ones with a weapon.

But she was carried along in the general melee and took part in a huge brawl which ended with people being stabbed and a teenager taken to hospital with a lump of his ear bitten off. Damage to property was on a grand scale.

She, according to her brief, wishes she had never been there, or that she had ever got involved.

Hindsight is all well and good.

The police by all accounts compiled a file as thick as your arm on this incident. Several others who were involved have already had their day in court.

Incidents of violence are sadly, all too common in modern British society.

Every week sees another stabbing. The majority of incidents taking place in London and the bigger cities and towns.

When it happens so close to home, it gives everyone a real jolt.

Even the defendant's solicitor admitted it had been his misfortune to have to deal with this incident.

The lesson the girl has now learned is one everyone should note.

When tempers rise and events turn ugly, turn your back and walk away. That way nobody gets hurt.