Laing, who started a sports technology degree at Sheffield Hallam university this year, was given 250 hours' community service for outraging public decency.
He was caught on CCTV targeting a poppy wreath at the city's main memorial shortly before Remembrance Sunday, while hopelessly drunk after a pub crawl laid on by the firm Carnage.
At an earlier hearing, district judge Anthony Browne suggested that organisers of the event should have been in the dock beside Laing, who admitted the offence as soon as he was arrested. The judge told today's hearing that measures needed to be taken to curb a drink culture targeted at young people.
Drinks for participants had cost only £1 and Laing had been left almost insensible, with no memory of what happened during the evening. He had also shared a bottle of whisky with a friend before joining the Carnage party, where he drank "vast quantities of alcohol."
The judge told him: "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 also said, of a culture of drinking far too much. In my view something does need to be done to change this culture."
The court heard that Laing had been mortified by the shame brought on himself and his family, especially as both his grandfathers had fought in the second world war and he had done work experience with the army. The CCTV images caused national outrage, and the judge said that he had been sent many letters about the case before sentencing.
"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," he said. "There you are, a young man of 19, urinating on the war memorial erected to honour the memory of so many other young men.
"You have understandably had the wrath and indignation of the public heaped upon you and your family, but I am required to decide your sentence on the basis of the facts of the case and principles of law alone."
Laing, the son of a computer programmer and an optician in Macclesfield, Cheshire, where he studied at the independent King's school, faces disciplinary proceedings by Sheffield Hallam. The judge said the university had not yet decided on his future, but noted: "I have never seen anyone more contrite for what has happened nor one who regrets more the hurt and distress he has caused."
War veterans' organisations at the time also recognised Laing's immediate apology and the scale of drinking involved. Varsity Leisure Group, which owns Carnage, denied encouraging irresponsible drinking at the events, which are accompanied by medical staff.
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