Wales rugby players found guilty of affray in brawl at French nightclub

Magistrates in Pau, south-west France,fined Thomas, 31, and Andy Moore, 31, £1,000 each and ordered them each to pay £1,900 to their victims.

Phil Booth, 29, was found guilty of affray, sexual exhibitionism and sexual aggression. He was given a six-month suspended sentence, fined £2,000 and ordered to pay his victims £3,300.

Richard Webster, 38, who was team coach at the time of the brawl three years ago, was cleared of affray. The brawl broke out at the El Barrio nightclub in Lescar, near Pau, in October 2002 after Bridgend had lost to Pau in a Parker Pen Challenge Cup clash. All four had denied the charges.

The court heardBooth had stripped naked and stood on a table and shook his genitals at revellers. Later, in the nightclub disco, he groped Celine Arnaud. When she prepared to leave with her boyfriend, Jean-Michel Gonthier, Booth threw him down a flight of stairs, where he was kicked and beaten by a number of drunken players.

Both Thomas and Moore were said to have taken part in the ensuing brawl in which team-mates were so drunk they hit each other. Ms Arnaud was also repeatedly punched when she tried to intervene.

All four players were arrested and charged after the brawl and stood trial last month. Booth attracted angry criticism from the court for failing to attend the hearing, claiming that he had urgent business to attend to. As a result, the public prosecutor demanded he be jailed for 18 months for his part in the brawl and accused him of mocking French justice.

Jean-Paul Brin, for the defence, said: "This was a well-moderated decision in my opinion. The severity of the sentence is much more modest than what was asked for at the hearing last month and is well balanced.

"The compensation which they have been ordered to pay is also well below what was being demanded." He added that the outcome of the court case would have no impact at all on the career of Thomas, who is now a star in France, playing for Toulouse.