A young man will be behind bars this Christmas instead of caring for his dying mother after he took part in a vicious street attack.

Colum Heffer, 20, was one of up to five men who carried out a revenge attack during a night out in Ramsgate last September, a court heard.

A row that began in the Sovereign and Royal pubs in the town centre escalated when a group of yobs ganged up on two victims in the street.

Friends of Heffer, of High Street St Lawrence, Ramsgate, held hands and wept at Canterbury Crown Court as he was sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders' Institution - despite pleas to free him for the sake of his mother, who has multiple sclerosis.

Nina Ellin, defending, said: "His life has had to change and he has had to grow up because of the rapid deterioration of his mother's health.

"She is now a six-stone woman who lives at home in a hospital bed, and breathes with the aid of a machine.

"This is likely to be her last Christmas."

The court heard Heffer - with 19-year-old accomplice Zac Mayo - punched victim Thomas Hanson repeatedly before Heffer held a cigarette lighter in his
face.

Heffer was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, though a jury acquitted him of a more serious grievous bodily harm charge.

Mayo, of Sussex Street, Ramsgate, was sentenced to three years in a
Young Offenders' Institution after the same jury found him guilty of both charges.

"this was mob rule under the pretext of some perceived grievance...” – judge adele williams

The court heard Mayo, who had 15 to 20 vodka drinks that night, also attacked a second victim, Kieran Faulkner, who had to have surgery for two displaced fractures.

Judge Adele Williams said the pair were the leading members of a larger group.

"This was drunken, unprovoked violence in the streets of Ramsgate late at night," she said. "This was mob rule under the pretext of some perceived grievance."

Neither of the attackers had been in trouble with the law and Mayo had been training as an apprentice plumber, the court heard.

The judge added: "It is a real tragedy that each of you chose to behave in the way that you did. You both took up an argument that Steven Side had started in the pub."

Side, 22, of Alexandra Road, Ramsgate, also stood trial and was found
not guilty on both counts, one of GBH and one of ABH.