Mother hugs thug son as he's sent to prison

By [rsims]

A MOTHER hugged her teenage son goodbye as he was jailed for kicking two men in a street brawl.

Karen Higgins, 38, from Crediton, walked free from Exeter Crown Court for her role in the incident while her 18-year-old son, Stephen Hill, was given a detention and training order for eight months.

It means he will spend four months in custody and the same under supervision.

Recorder Michael Cullum had previously rejected the Echo's application to lift a ban on naming Hill after he was convicted at a trial last year. The ban was imposed because he was a youth. We can reveal his identity because he is now 18.

Hill, of Queen Elizabeth Drive, Crediton, had been convicted at trial of affray and assaulting Philip Bate and Charles Callard, occasioning them both actual bodily harm. He had denied the charges.

His mother, of the same address, had admitted a public order offence and was given a year's conditional discharge.

They both sat in the custody box and she hugged her son and said goodbye as he was led away by security guards.

Prosecutor Jonathan Barnes did not tell the court about the offence yesterday.

At the trial, the jury was told Hill started a row with his former girlfriend, Louise French, 19, when he spotted her in the street in St Lawrence Green, in the early hours of September 7, 2008.

He had already set her car alight several weeks before and has since been convicted of arson for that offence.

She ran to the police station for help. He followed her and his mother joined in the row, with Miss French banging on the station door without success.

Hill then returned to St Lawrence Green where Mr Bate and Mr Callard had arrived after a friend told them Miss French was in distress.

Hill punched Mr Bate to the ground and kicked him to the head and the face, leaving him unconscious. He then grabbed Mr Callard, throwing him to the ground and kicking and stamping on him.

The court was told Hill has 22 previous convictions for offences, including violence and disorderly behaviour, while his mother has one conviction for a public order offence in 1991.

Defence counsel David Sapiecha said his client had stayed out of trouble ever since the street brawl and had good work experience references.

"It's unthinkable that this troublesome, unlikeable blight on the community has stopped but that is the evidence," he said. "Maybe he's finally reached a point where his hormones and emotions are settling down."

Rupert Taylor, representing Higgins, said she was a hard-working cleaner who was not usually in trouble.

Recorder Cullum said he was reducing Hill's sentence because of his recent good behaviour but he had to send a message out that violence resulted in jail.

He said: "It's fortunate this didn't result in far more serious injuries."