THREE men have been found guilty of helping to plan the hammer attack on schoolboy Henry Webster.

After 13 hours of deliberation, the jury found Roubel Meah, Manbuh Ali and Kamran Khan guilty of conspiracy to commit actual bodily harm.

The four men and eight women of the jury will return to Bristol Crown Court today to continue deliberating the case against five other defendants.

James Patrick for the prosecution said the defendants organised the attack with the intention of hurting Henry.

He said: "There was a plan and an agreement. A plan between pupils at school and their older friends and relatives to teach him a lesson.

"To attack him. To hurt him. To cause him injury. These defendants and others agreed a crime should be committed and each one intended it be carried out.

"They arrived in cars, lying in wait skulking around so as not to alarm the children at school.

"If the attack wasn't planned, why didn't one of them try to stop it? Or shout to the people they knew?"

During the six-week trial, the jury was told that Meah, 20, of County Road, drove from New College to Ridgeway School on the day of the attack in the dark green coloured Volkswagen Golf he shared with his sister.

Telephone records from Meah's mobile phone showed he made 16 calls to his co-defendants in the space of nine minutes on the afternoon of January 11, 2007.

Ali, 18, of Broad Street, also travelled to the school in Meah's car after missing part of a double English lesson at New College where he was a student.

Kamran Khan, 19, of Drove Road, travelled to the scene in the same car as four of the teenagers convicted of assaulting Henry.

Wasif Khan, who is believed to have used the hammer to strike Henry repeatedly over the head causing him permanent brain damage, Amjad Qazi and a 16-year-old who cannot be named were all in the Peugeot 206 car and found guilty of assault causing grievous bodily harm at the conclusion of the first hammer trial last month.

Judge Carol Hagen granted Meah, Ali and Kamran Khan bail but warned they could face jail for the offence.

Javad Khan, 20, of Manchester Road, Mizonur Rahman, 19, of Broad Street, Bilal Yakub, 18, of Nursery View, Faringdon, Aqduss Rauf, 18, of Hereford Lawns, and a 15-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons all deny conspiracy to commit actual bodily harm.