A woman who forced two of her children to fight each other and filmed the fight was let off Friday along with her accomplices. The Plymouth Crown Court handed down a one-year suspended sentence for child cruelty offences.

The woman - along with three other women - encouraged her two-year-old son and three year-old daughter to punch and kick each other during the home video.

The tearful boy, just in a nappy and T-shirt, was goaded into punching his sister after she hit him and was called a "wimp" and "faggot."

"It was extremely upsetting footage," prosecutor David Gittins told BBC News 24. "It showed that the conduct of these defendants was totally and utterly unacceptable. The children were so distressed and time and time again were ... pushed back into the ring to keep fighting each other when they clearly didn't want to," Gittins said.

The woman's husband discovered the tape by chance. "The footage had sickened and saddened everyone working on the case," said the police.

The women's family (all belong to the same family) said in a statement, "The gravity of these events has placed an enormous strain on our family, who had no idea that these women were capable of acts of such wanton cruelty."

The children are left with relatives and doing well, police said.

The women left court without comment.