The Bristol Evening Post and the Somerset Mercury have won the right to name two tearaways who were banned from the centre of Weston-super-Mare.

Lawyers acting for the Post sent a letter to magistrates asking them not to impose an order that would ban the media from identifying them. A similar request was submitted by the weekly Mercury.

North Somerset Council also supported the application, arguing that traders operating outside the town centre should also be made aware of their identities after the pair fired paint guns, daubed graffiti and caused trouble inside shops.

The youths, aged 17 and 15, were among the youngest in the country to have an anti-social behaviour order imposed on them.

Their solicitor argued that they already enjoyed "significant notoriety" and peer pressure was causing them to try to live up to their image.

The court hearing was a bid by the council to extend and vary the order imposed last February.