A WOMAN lured her exboyfriend to a quiet country lane in the early hours of the morning where two friends were waiting to beat him up, a court was told yesterday.

The victim suffered a suspected fractured nose and cheekbone and was left bloodied and concussed in the isolated spot outside Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Teesside Crown Court heard the 20-year-old was driven five miles onto the moors after being contacted by his former lover, Clare Dear, from Darlington.

Dear, 37, had split up with the man two months earlier, but the pair kept in touch, and she rang him late on July 12 to suggest a meeting before he moved South.

The mother drove to North Yorkshire, dropped off her pals, Aaron Knight and Lee Coates, in the lane and went to pick up her ex-boyfriend.

When the pair got back to the spot, Dear parked, suggested they go into the wilderness for sex, began to walk down the track and the trap was sprung.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Dear wrongly believed her former partner had abused one of her children and told 20-year-old Knight and Coates, 22, about it.

The trio, all from Darlington, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and were given suspended prison sentences with 150 hours of unpaid work.

Judge Peter Armstrong told them: “This sort of attack has some sort of vigilante aspect. It is not up to you to take the law into your own hands and seek revenge.

“It has been a close-run thing as to whether you had to go away today. What saved you was your lack of previous convictions, but you won’t be able to say that again.”

Robert Mochrie, mitigating for Dear, of Tyne Crescent, accepted she was the ringleader, and said: “She should have known better, but let her emotions get the better of her.”

Carl Swift, mitigating for Knight, a former car repair student, of North Lodge Terrace, told Judge Armstrong: “He knows it is stupidity that has brought him here today.”

Brian Russell, mitigating for Coates, of Rockingham Street, said: “He is sorry for what he has done. I accept it would be a close call, but a suspended sentence would not be unreasonable.”

Judge Armstrong imposed nine-month prison sentences, suspended for two years, and ordered the three to undergo 12 months of supervision with the Probation Service.