AN Okehampton teenager who was one of two youths who burst into a man?s home and savagely beat him up has been sent to youth custody for ten months.

Timothy Hood, 17, was with 18-year-old Calvin Fennell when the pair smashed their way into the home of Damien Jefferies where they punched and kicked the victim to the floor.

Exeter Crown Court last Wednesday heard Hood was angry at Mr Jefferies for allegedly shirking his responsibilities to a baby born to his former girl friend. In the attack on him Mr Jefferies sustained a series of cuts and bruises.

The court heard Mr Jefferies and his girl friend were in the house in Exeter, when they heard banging on the door. As the noise level rose and force on the door increased the couple took refuge in an upstairs bedroom and telephoned the police.

The next thing they knew was Hood and Fennell were in the bedroom where they attacked Mr Jefferies until he fell to the floor. There Hood kicked him before the two teenagers fled.

Hood, of Willow Tree Close, Okehampton, was put on a ten-month detention and training order. Fennell, of Exeter, was sent to a young offenders? institution for six months after both admitted an assault charge.

Mitigating for Hood, Emily Pitts said he was angry because Mr Jefferies would not look after his baby daughter at a time when he was going out with the mother.

For Fennell, Terry Holder said the row was nothing to do with his client but he had still become involved in the assault. Mr Holder said like Hood, Fennell was drunk at the time and could remember little of what had taken place at the home of Mr Jefferies.

Passing sentence on the pair, Judge David Bartlett told them: ?You both did something quite disgraceful. It is the case that this young man was, mercifully, not badly injured.

?But the real gravity of this offence is not the assault, but the fact you entered his house and then assaulted him.

?You beat him, kicked him and put him to the ground. He suffered quite severe injuries. Nothing was broken but this was an outrageous episode in someone?s private house.?