Philip Laing had been warned he could face a custodial sentence after the picture showed him soaking a poppy wreath following the organised drinking session in Sheffield city centre.

The 19-year-old, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, admitted the offence earlier this month and yesterday District Judge Anthony Browne ordered Laing to do 250 hours of community service.

Sitting at Sheffield Magistrates' Court, the judge said Laing had drunk "far too much" and added that "something does need to be done" about the drinking culture that led to his behaviour.

The district judge said he had considered jailing Laing but he said he had never seen anyone who was more contrite.

Sentencing him Mr Browne added: "I said to you when you last appeared that the image of your urinating over the wreath of poppies at the city war memorial was a truly shocking one.

"That was no understatement. There you are, a young man of 19, urinating on the war memorial erected to honour the memory of so many other young men."

He referred to Laing's evening beginning with him sharing a bottle of whisky with a friend before consuming vast amounts of alcohol at an event organised by a firm called Carnage UK.

Mr Browne said Laing had told probation officers all the drinks were £1 on the bar crawl but added: "Now, let me make this perfectly clear. No one forced you to take all this drink, or forced it down you, or persuaded you to commit a criminal offence. You did that all by yourself and you must take responsibility.

"But all this is set against a backdrop, as your solicitor has said, of a culture of drinking far too much. In my view something does need to be done to change this culture.

"What you have done has outraged and offended many and has saddened most.

"I received many letters from members of the public but I am required to decide your sentence on the basis of the facts of the case and principles of law alone."

Laing sat by himself in the glass-fronted dock wearing a grey suit, pink shirt and a blue-and-red striped tie. He bowed his head for most of the hearing as his parents sat a few feet away.

The defendant avoided entering and leaving the court by the public entrance and allowed to go through a neighbouring police station.

His parents did leave by the public exit and his mother said only: "He's sorry. He's very, very sorry, " as she left.

Laing was arrested after he was caught on camera by a freelance photographer in Barker's Pool, in the centre of Sheffield.

The photographer had already taken pictures of him collapsed in a nearby supermarket doorway. Laing then got up but fell down again before he got to the war memorial.

The pictures were published in a range of newspapers and have led to pages being set up on the internet calling for Laing to face severe punishment.

The event in Sheffield on October 11 involved 2,000 students and was one of a series organised by Carnage UK, .

At the earlier hearing, referring to Carnage UK, the district judge told Laing: "Some might say that somebody should be standing alongside you."

Tim Hughes, mitigating, told the court of his client's utter remorse and said: "Philip Laing has paid an extremely high price for one evening of complete and utter foolishness."

The solicitor referred to the outpouring of "approbation and revulsion" on social networking sites on the internet and said: "He's got caught up in a drinking culture that's all too prevalent."

Mr Hughes urged Mr Browne not the send his client to prison saying he was "terrified" of the prospect. He said jail would be a "brutalising experience" for a young man who would never trouble the courts again.