FOUR members of a Swansea family were acting "as a pack" when they brutally beat up a man in the city centre following an argument at a nightclub, a court heard.

They set upon victim Robert Kurylo in York Street shortly after he had been ejected from nearby Play by doormen.

The violent incident was described when brothers Phillip Hayes and Barry Hayes were sentenced with their cousins, Michael Hayes and Matthew Hayes, for assault causing actual bodily harm.

Swansea Crown Court heard that Phillip Hayes, aged 31, of Blaenymaes Drive, Blaenymaes, had been convicted by a jury in January after pleading not guilty. But the other three entered guilty pleas at hearings last year.

Mark Spackman, prosecuting, said that on April 18 the four defendants were out celebrating Michael Hayes's 20th birthday.

Mr Kurylo was also in the city centre that night — and at Play a row developed as a result of words exchanged between his girlfriend and one of the young women with the defendants.

As the argument escalated, said Mr Spackman, doormen intervened and Mr Kurylo ended up being ejected from the club. After Matthew Hayes was also asked to leave, the other defendants decided to go as well. Mr Kurylo was then confronted by the four a short distance from the club and punched and kicked in a brutal beating.

As a result, he was treated in hospital for head and facial injuries and was unable to hear properly for some time.

He was also left out of pocket because his condition meant he was unable to start a new job he had been offered.

At the hearing, Phillip Hayes admitted the ABH conviction had put him in breach of a suspended prison sentence imposed on him just six weeks before for common assault.

Judge Huw Davies QC said the trauma of finding himself defenceless on the ground, being attacked by four men, would remain with Mr Kurylo for a long time.

It was clear, he added, that on the night in question the defendants had all drunk more than they could possibly cope with, and that the incident in the club had been a minor one which should have ended there and then.

"But outside you banded together and went after Mr Kurylo," said the judge. "In effect you attacked him as a pack."

Phillip Hayes was sent to prison for 36 weeks after the judge said immediate custody was inevitable in his case because of the breached suspended sentence.

Barry Hayes, aged 26, of St Rhidian Road, Portmead, and Michael Hayes, of Broughton Avenue, Portmead, were each given a 16-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

Matthew Hayes, aged 19, also of Broughton Avenue, was made the subject of a 12- month community order and given an unpaid work order of 150 hours.

It was significant, said the judge, that the youngest defendant had been the first to plead guilty, "indicating contrition at the earliest possible stage when the case was still at the magistrates' court".