Lawyers have defended their decision to prosecute a man who was acquitted of assaulting two teenagers after his home was damaged on Mischief Night.

Father-of-three Mark Fenwick, 34, confronted a group of youngsters on October 30 last year after a slab of paving concrete was thrown through a window of his Middlesbrough home.

He was cleared by a jury at Teesside Crown Court of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: This was allegation of assault by a man armed with a wooden pole against youths whom he believed had damaged his home.

We considered medical evidence and photographs of the injuries in making our decision that the case should go to court.

There was no evidence to show the youths he caught had been involved in the incident or had committed any offence.

There was no criticism by the judge of the CPS for bringing this prosecution.

Mr Fenwick, of Chervil, Coulby Newham, along with his neighbour, David Lawson, 38, caught three teenagers and frog-marched them to a police van after his house was damaged on Mischief Night - when youngsters traditionally cause trouble in neighbourhoods.

He told the jury yesterday that, at the time, one of the police officers thanked him for his help, but about a month later he was arrested for assault.

He denied the charges, saying: I feel that I did what any normal person in my position would have done.

He added: I believe to this day that I did everything right. I never overstepped the mark in anything I did.

Mr Fenwick said that when he went outside to see what had happened he was confronted by a gang of about 30 youths armed with sticks, bricks and stones, who pelted him with missiles.

One member of the group shouted: Come on, hes on his own. Lets give him a f kicking.

After telling his wife to call the police, he said he followed the gang in his car and saw them damaging other properties.

He and Mr Lawson caught three boys - all of whom Mr Fenwick believed were in the original gang - and handed them over to the police when they arrived.

But one of the youths, aged 13, claimed he had been strangled and hit with a stick and another, aged 15, said Mr Fenwick punched him and rugby-tackled him to the ground.

Mr Fenwick admitted he was armed with a stick when he went outside, but threw it away when the gang split up.

I was apprehensive about my own safety at the time. My intention with the stick was if I needed to get away while I was being attacked, it would give me the chance to do that.

He added: You hear so many horror stories on the news that you have these thoughts in your mind when all this is going on.