The seven-hour siege only came to an end when the 'tornado team', an elite riot squad charged with keeping Britain's unruly prisoners at bay, stormed the chapel. Eighteen stun grenades were pushed through the shattered windows, before the rioting teenagers were finally brought under control.
When the dust settled the chapel was in ruins and £40,000 damage had been caused, but the six young rioters were under arrest. All had one thing in common - they were from Manchester.
They included Desmond Noonan Jnr, the then 19-year-old son of Manchester crime boss Damien Noonan, who had died in a motorbike crash in the Caribbean two years earlier, and nephew of murdered gangster Desmond Noonan. Others were or would go on to become members of the notorious Gooch gang offshoots Fallowfield Mandem and the Rusholme Crips, including convicted gang boss Zico Reid.
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Trouble flared on February 13, 2005 during the Sunday morning church service at the Deerbolt Young Offender's Institution, a former army camp near Barnard Castle, County Durham. Conducted by the Rev Daniel Hartley, the congregation included 29 inmates and three Deerbolt staff.
But just after 9am the teenage gang 'went mental', a court would later hear. They began hurling abuse and, before prison staff could react, pelted the shocked vicar with chairs.
As the wardens ran to get help, Noonan and company barricaded themselves into the chapel. Inmates unwilling to take part managed to escape by breaking a window and climbing out.
Then chaos ensued. The gang drank the communion wine, dressed up in the vicar's vestments and daubed graffiti on the walls writing Satan had sent them.
It wasn't until 4pm that day that the siege was finally broken up when the stun grenades, similar to those used by the SAS to end terrorist hijackings, were deployed. Speaking to the Northern Echo the following day, one prison officer described the moment the riot was brought to order.
They said: "These grenades cause a terrific bang and blinding flash, which terrifies anyone standing near them and completely disorientates them for a while. The specialist team threw them through some of the chapel's broken windows, then raced in and the six culprits were brought out rapidly."
David Ewart, a member of the Deerbolt Independent Monitoring Board, said the fact all six rioters were from Manchester could have pointed to a reason for the disturbance.
"You get tension between prisoners from different regions and the distance from their homes is a significant factor," he said "The six prisoners appear to have given no significant reason for this protest, but interestingly all six came from Manchester.
"In the next report, one of the recommendations we will be making is that we should take note of the fact that many prisoners are very unhappy at being here, rather than their home area like Manchester, because it's so far away."
Five months later the rioters appeared before Teesside Crown Court where they pleaded guilty to prison mutiny.
A North East and North West divide existed between prisoners at the institution, the court heard. The riot wasn't pre-planned, it was said, but broke out because the inmates, all aged 18 and 19, were 'homesick' and angry at being moved so far away from their home city.
One prisoner hadn't seen family or friends for 18 months, the court was told. Describing the moment trouble broke out Peter Johnson, prosecuting, said: "The other inmates were completely shocked. One described the defendants as going mental.
"What ensued was a systematic destruction of the chapel. Some of the defendants were seen wearing the chaplain's vestments and carrying the altar cross."
Noonan and Reid, then 18, were sentenced to two-and-a-half years' detention. Four other Manchester teenagers were given sentences ranging from 18 months to two and half years.
Noonan would later be jailed for five years for drug dealing offences after using his share of his mother's £1m lottery win to bankroll a heroin deal. In 2021 Reid, who was described in court as a 'long standing and senior member' of the Rusholme Crips, was jailed for 12 years after stashing a loaded handgun in an alleyway in Rusholme.
