EIGHT young men have denied helping organise the hammer attack on Wroughton schoolboy Henry Webster.

Roubel Meah, 20, of County Road, Kamran Khan, 19, of Drove Road, Javed Khan, 20, of Manchester Road, Mizanur Rahman, of Broad Street, Mahbob Ali, 18, of Broad Street, Aqduss Rauff, Bilal Yaqub both 18, and a 15-year-old boy from Lawn who cannot be named for legal reasons all appeared in the dock at Bristol Crown Court for the first day of the second trial into the hammer attack on former Ridgeway school pupil Henry.

All eight defendants denied conspiracy to commit actual bodily harm and an alternative charge of violent disorder.

Earlier this month verdicts on all four defendants were reached for the first six-week trial into the attack, which left Henry, 16, permanently brain damaged.

Wasif Khan, Amjad Qazi and two boys aged 15 and 16 denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.

A gagging order, enforced by Judge Carol Hagen banned the Advertiser from reporting the jury's decision. In the first trial, prosecutor James Patrick, described the brutal attack in the tennis courts at Ridgeway School on January 11, 2007 as "a sickening sight".