A vicar called on his training "from a previous life" to make a citizen's arrest while being beaten up by a gang of yobs.

The Rev Paul Mothersdale, a former inner city beat police sergeant, hung on to a teenager who had initiated the attack on him while 19 others rained kicks and blows on his body.

The 49-year-old said: "It is just a case of protecting your face and hanging on for the cavalry to arrive."

The "cavalry", Cleveland Police, had been summoned to the scene - Middlesbrough's Easterside council estate - by the clergyman's wife, Jacky on a cordless phone.

She was attacked herself - possibly for the first and last time by the individual who leapt on her back.

Mrs Mothersdale said: "He got the shock of his life. I grabbed him between the legs, twisted and squeezed."

Trouble had begun when two weeping girls sought sanctuary in the vicar's garden fled from the gang of boys, one protesting she would be beaten up if she went back on to the street.

Mrs Mothersdale said her husband had escorted the two girls, who were drunk, out of the garden and was attempting to usher the rest of the drunken gang away when one of the teenagers lashed out at him, punching him in the face.

His attacker's pals closed in on the vicar who fell, pinning the teenager to the ground beneath him.

The vicar who used to patrol tough Chapeltown and Seacroft in Leeds, said: "It is unfortunate they are a small minority of people who cause bother which stigmatises the rest."

Cleveland Police said a 16-year-old youth had been arrested in connection with the incident but had been released on police bail, pending further inquiries.