Man beat teenager who he thought had raped a friend

Durham Crown Court heard that Michael David Holdsworth reacted angrily on being told a woman he knew had been raped.

He was given the name of a person suspected of carrying out the attack and went to his house, in Shotton Colliery, east Durham, armed with an extendable police-type baton.

The court heard that the 17-year-old was watching television when Holdsworth knocked, at about midnight last June 25.

He refused to open the door, so Holdsworth smashed the front double-glazed window and climbed in, chasing the teenager who tried, unsuccessfully, to get out of the back door.

Holdsworth said he was going to kill the youth, and landed six or seven forceful blows across his body with the baton.

Lesley Kirkup, prosecuting, said the petrified victim feared he was going to be killed. He managed to flee by jumping out of the window smashed by Holdsworth, who gave chase.

The victim escaped but needed hospital treatment for whelp marks, plus abrasions and bruises to his upper body and arms.

Miss Kirkup said Holdsworth was arrested a short time later and told police: "When I flip, I flip."

Holdsworth, 27, formerly of Dene Terrace, Shotton Colliery, although recently living in Hereford Street, Hartlepool, admitted aggravated burglary.

Robin Denny, mitigating, said his reaction on hearing of the alleged rape was, "wholly exceptional".

He said: "He was provoked on hearing certain information and behaved in this way.

"He seriously believed something serious had happened to someone he knew."

Judge Tony Lancaster said Holdsworth, "took the law into his own hands", but added: "I'm of the view you genuinely believed this offence had been committed by the victim and you went to his house in anger."

He added that, due to the exceptional circumstances, he was able to impose a 50-week prison sentence suspended for two years, with a 200-hour community punishment order.

Holdsworth must also observe a three-month electronically-tagged home curfew, between 8pm and 7am.