A pair of teenagers who held an illegal drink and drugs party at a children’s home have been locked up for attacking a youth worker who tried to stop them.

A 16-year-old resident at the home in Newton Abbot invited Dale Potter, aged 18, and a 15-year-old friend to join him in his room.

He was not meant to have visitors late at night, to get drunk, or take drugs – but the trio did all three and then attacked social worker Mark Bush when he tried to break up their party.

The two intruders hid when he went down to tell the 16-year-old to turn the music down and after he went back to his staff room upstairs they waited to he fell asleep and then followed him.

They subjected him to a terrifying 30-minute ordeal in which they robbed him of his phone, £10 bank card and car keys before locking him in his own room and taking his car.

He was only able to get out by tying sheets together and shinning down them to got out and raise the alarm, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Dale Potter, aged 18, of Barwick, near Yeovil, and two boys aged 16 and 15, all admitted robbery. Potter was sent to a young offenders’ institution for 30 months, and the 16-year-old detained for two years, by Judge Mrs Justice May.

The 15-year-old boy’s case was sent back to the Youth Court.

The judge told the boys: ‘All three of you were drunk and using hallucinogenic drugs, and when Mr Bush asked you to turn the music down you abused him.

‘After he left, all three went to his bedroom where he was trying to sleep. One of you feigned injury and when he opened the door all three of you subjected him to a nasty and frightening ordeal.

‘You threatened him, humiliated him, stole his money and car keys, his phone with all his personal details, cards and cash. You all uttered threats, one saying you would burn his house down.

‘It must have been terrifying for him to have three teenaged boys who were obviously high acting aggressively and in this threatening manner.

‘You locked him in room and drove away in his car, so he had to climb down using bed linen and run to the station to borrow a phone to call for help.

‘The aggravating factors of this offending are that Mr Bush was effectively in his home, the place where he was sleeping that night, he was doing a vital job as a care and support worker, and you were all using alcohol and illegal drugs.’

Miss Caroline Bolt, prosecuting, said Mr Bush was on duty at the home in Newton Abbot on the night of March 30 this year when the 16-year-old resident let the other two in without permission.

The robbery took place after he went to ask the boy to turn the music down and during the incident he was threatened by at least two of the boys and hit with a cushion by Potter.

They humiliated him by watching while he went to the bathroom and filmed some of the incident on a mobile phone.

He pretended to have a seizure in the hope he would be left alone but then found himself locked in the upstairs room and had to escape out the window.

Mr James Taghdissian, for Potter, and Miss Emma Martin, for the 16-year-old, said they both had behavioural problems.

The younger boy had a disrupted childhood in care, while Potter has a supportive family but has gone off the rails over the past two years.