Jordan McGinley and Shawn Divin, who claimed page calling for looting and attacks on police was a joke, given three-year terms

Two teenagers have been jailed for three years for trying to organise a riot in Dundee using Facebook, at the height of the summer disturbances in England.

Jordan McGinley, 18, and Shawn Divin, 16, claimed they had set up the page named "riot in the toon" as a joke, while urging Facebook users to "kill some fucking daftys", loot shops and attack the police on 17 August.

Their page was viewed by more than 2,000 people after it was posted, with 221 saying they would attend and 68 others claiming they might attend.

McGinley and Divin, who were arrested on 11 August on suspicion of incitement to mob and riot, had already pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace and tried to play down their intentions. They insisted that the page was not a deliberate attempt to incite violence or a riot, but was a "joke that got a bit serious".

James Laverty, the defence solicitor for Divin, urged for mercy in sentencing as there had been no rioting in Scotland at the time. The offence came from "gross stupidity" rather than a real wish to provoke or lead disorder, he said.

Sheriff Elizabeth Munro said that she had weighed up the case very carefully but was convinced that a custodial sentence was necessary because the circumstances were "extremely serious".

With family members of the pair watching in tears as they were sentenced, the sheriff added: "Television footage of the violence and disorder was beamed across the world and horrified all right-minded people who saw it."

And the context of the incitement was crucial, she said. "The crime committed by each accused was not committed in isolation. It was committed when there was widespread lawlessness. Each accused, in my view, intended to contribute to or aggravate that lawlessness. This is one of the worst breaches of the peace that I have ever had to deal with."

Neither Divin or McGinley had created the page but were its administrators. Divin posted one message on the site stating: "Only join if yir actually gonna come. If any has guns bring them down to this. Kill some fucking daftys."

Other messages posted on Divin's own Facebook page said: "Show the English how it's really done," and "If it does happen, you up fir takin a police guy oot the gem?"

Both teenagers were sentenced to detention of three years for the breach of the peace while Divin was given a further 15 months for breach of probation and for committing the offence on bail.