A Southampton teenager is behind bars after being shopped to police by his own parents.

Robin and Diane Horgan said they were devastated by the agonising choice they had made but would stand by the youngster.

A judge praised the pair when he put Joseph Horgan, 18, behind bars for three years.

Recorder Lawrence West said they had been acting in their son's best interests to stop him getting caught in an upward spiral of crime.

"It will cause you unhappiness and heartache for them," he told him.

The city crown court heard how the couple reported him to the police when he arrived home saturated and trouserless after falling into a pond while fleeing a robbery.

Father-of-four Mr Horgan, 48, said: "We knew immediately something serious had occurred and were not happy with our son's explanation.

"Because it appeared a weapon may have been involved in whatever incident had happened, we decided that we had a moral obligation to report to the police, both from the point of view of the law and of our strong family values.

"The facts as they subsequently came to light have shown we were right but we remain devastated."

He added that it was every parent's nightmare. Mrs Horgan, 43, said their son knew they had not deserted him.

The teenager and accomplice, Michael Webb, had been drunk on a bottle of vodka and eight cans of beer when they went to a house occupied by students in Kent Road.

Prosecutor Susan Holmes said there was a fairly sustained attack in a 20-minute period during which one person suffered a broken nose and others were slapped about the head as the pair stole a mobile phone, a computer, a wallet and CDs.

The pair were caught after one occupant alerted a neighbour.

Putting both behind bars for three years, the judge condemned the "gratuitous violence" they had inflicted on their victims in the "sanctuary'' of their homes.

Horgan, of Little Lances Hill, Bitterne, admitted one charge each of robbery, burglary, theft and actual bodily harm.

Webb, 34, of The Meadows, Mansbridge, admitted two charges of robbery. He was given a consecutive sentence of one month's jail for handling computer equipment stolen from a church hall, which he admitted before city magistrates who committed him for sentence.

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