A CREDITON mother and her 18-year-old son sat in the same custody box before sentence was passed in a recent court case.

Karen Higgins (38) hugged her teenage son, Stephen Hill, and told him "goodbye" as he was jailed at Exeter Crown Court for kicking two men on the ground in a street brawl.

Higgins walked free from the court while her son was given a detention and training order for eight months.

His mother, of Queen Elizabeth Drive, Crediton, had admitted a public order offence and was given a year's conditional discharge.

He will spend four months in custody and the same amount of time under supervision.

Hill, of the same address, was convicted of affray and assaulting Philip Bate and Charles Callard, occasioning them both actual bodily harm.

At the trial, the jury heard Hill started a row with his former girlfriend, 19-year-old Louise French, 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 Crediton 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 in the head and face, leaving him unconscious.

He then grabbed Mr Callard, throwing him to the ground before kicking and stamping on him.

Hill has 13 previous convictions for 22 offences, including violence and disorderly behaviour, while his mother has one conviction for a public order offence in 1991.