A MAN was repeatedly beaten with a pickaxe handle and a bar in a revenge attack, a court heard yesterday.

Neil Westerman suffered a suspected fractured nose, and bruising to his head, face, arm, back and leg in the assault outside his home on Teesside on December 18, 2002.

Teesside Crown Court heard that earlier that day, Mr Westerman had punched a man called Andrew Calvert after hearing he had been responsible for stealing his car.

One of the witnesses to the assault, Christopher Watson, went to Mr Westerman's house with two other men to seek revenge.

Watson pulled the victim from his home and dragged him across a road in a headlock while the others delivered blows with their weapons, prosecutor Xanthe Craddock told the court.

The unemployed 23-year-old, of Essex Port Road, Stockton, pleaded guilty to affray and was given an 18-month community rehabilitation order and told to pay £200 compensation to Mr Westerman.

Shaun Dryden, mitigating, said Watson was unaware that the level of violence would be so great when he turned up at Mr Westerman's house late at night.

"He played a role," said Mr Dryden. "But a minor role."

The judge, Mr Recorder Anton Lodge, QC, told Watson he had gone to Mr Westerman's house for "wholly wrong reasons".

He said: "You never had any intention of peacefully resolving any issue that may have involved him and Mr Calvert."