IT BEGAN as a Sunday afternoon family outing to the sports centre.

But it ended in tragedy when a wife and a teenage son watched their husband and father die after being stoned by a group of children.

Five boys from Erith aged 12 to 14, including two brothers, were found guilty last Friday by an Old Bailey jury of the manslaughter of retired draughtsman Ernest Norton in February last year.

In an emotionally-charged courtroom, the boys and their parents wept as the jury, some of them also in tears, pronounced the boys guilty of manslaughter and violent disorder.

Mr Norton's 56-year-old widow Linda, a former bank clerk, also cried.

The boys, who were only aged between 10 and 12 at the time of Mr Norton's death, are some of the youngest ever to have been tried at the Old Bailey.

They were granted conditional bail by Judge Warwick McKinnon until October 19, when they will be sentenced.

He told them a custodial sentence was "inevitable".

During the trial, the judge had to reprimand the boys for their poor behaviour after complaints from court staff.

The trial, which began on July 30, heard how the boys had taken a trip to Bluewater before ending up at Erith Leisure Centre, Avenue Road, Erith.

They were part of a crowd of youngsters from the New Estate gang who met members of the Winnie Crew to take on the Young Raving Loonies from Barnehurst in a fight.

After chasing off their rivals, resident Stephan Gogot took a baseball bat from one of the group and described them as "looking for trouble".

The group of up to 15 youngsters was thrown out of the leisure centre for causing trouble and then came upon Mr Norton, 67, of Courtleet Drive, Erith, and his 17-year-old son James, playing cricket on the empty tennis court.

The group began shouting insults at them, and when Mr Norton told them to clear off the youngsters began throwing stones and lumps of wood.

DNA tests proved at least two of the boys had also spat on Mr Norton.

One large rock hit Mr Norton on the temple and another fractured his cheekbone.

Mr Norton, who had been well since a triple heart bypass operation in 1977, collapsed with heart failure.

As the group ran off laughing, James and an off-duty policeman tried to revive him.

James ran into the centre to get help and find his mother.

They were both with Mr Norton when he was declared dead at the scene.

Police arrested 13 youngsters near the leisure centre the same evening, and another eight in the following weeks.

Six were charged, but the case against one 14-year-old was discontinued.

All five boys denied deliberately targeting Mr Norton.

One of them, aged 14, gave evidence and claimed he was trying to hit the stumps.

Speaking after the trial, Mrs Norton said the day of her husband's death had been "a normal sort of Sunday".

She had decided to go to the gym to burn off some energy and her son had decided to play cricket rather than join her.

Mrs Norton said when she saw her husband she had no idea he had been attacked.

She said: "I called his name and held his hand but there was no sort of response to it."

Mrs Norton added: "I am a bit shocked to think he died under such circumstances; not dying peacefully."

She and Mr Norton's sister, Margaret Barraclough, described Mr Norton as a placid man who had stayed home to look after his children when they were born, and was interested in playing folk music on his guitar and studying American Indian history.

His wife said he would have been thrilled to have become a grandfather on August 18.

Mrs Norton says she does not hold a grudge against the boys and hopes they will realise the consequences of their actions.

She said she also hoped parents would try to find out what their children were doing all day.

Mrs Norton added: "These kids are bored and don't know what to do with themselves."