TWO brothers hauled back to court for mocking a judge on Facebook after she decided not to send them to prison for drug dealing have now been jailed for two years.

Forty minutes after he received a two-year suspended jail term from Judge Beverley Lunt, Daniel Sledden, 27, posted online: “Cannot believe my luck 2 year suspended sentence (sic) beats the 3 year jail yes pal!”

He then made a disrespectful remark about the judge.

Soon after, his brother, Samuel, 22, wrote: “What a day it’s been Burnley crown court! Up ur **** aha nice two-year suspended...”

The defendants were recalled for a sentence review when the remarks were brought to the attention of the judge after she previously heard their expressions of remorse for offending.

On Friday, Judge Lunt said: “The question I have to ask myself is this, if I had not known their real feelings at being in court would I have accepted their remorse and contrition, and suspended the sentence? And the answer is of course not.

“Each of the posts indicates they have not changed at all. They have not taken on board anything or learned any responsibility.”

The Sleddens originally received a two-year jail terms, suspended for two years, after they admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis between May and September 2014.

Both will now serve two years after the suspension was lifted by Judge Lunt.

Sitting at Preston Crown Court, Judge Lunt said the posts contained “offensive and sexual content directed at me as a judge, and also as a woman judge”.

She said: “These were not private entries in a diary. They were placed on Facebook with the intention that others should and would read them, and if they wished, would share them. So it was a limitless audience.

“Their content is clearly indicative of how they really felt about appearing in court for this particular offence. Their tenor was boastful and jeering and the only reasonable inference was, they thought they had somehow fooled and misled the court.”

Daniel Sledden’s online post was later deleted but only because he had been advised to do so by his solicitors, said the judge.

She said: “Neither defendant had thought there was anything regrettable in them or decided to delete them themselves.”

Both brothers had since written letters of apology to the judge, the court heard.

Judge Lunt continued: “These are two grown men. They are not children showing off. They both knew exactly what they were doing. They did not care who saw what they had written.

“Now I have no doubt that they are sorry they were caught.”

Daniel Prowse, defending Samuel Sledden, said the online comments were, ‘ill-conceived, extremely disrespectful and displayed rude ingratitude’ but neither demonstrated explicitly they were not sorry to have committed the offence.

Mr Prowse said the posts were not intended to be seen beyond their family and friends.

Arguing that it was not necessary to revoke the suspended jail terms, he said the subsequent reporting of the case had led to them becoming “national, if not international, figures of ridicule”.

“They, frankly, will never live this down,” said Mr Prowse.