A WOMAN whose jaw was broken as she tried to protect her partner from a vicious kicking has told how the memory of the attack still haunts her.

Sharon Friend was hurt desperately trying to defend Mark Stannard after he was attacked outside the couple's home in The Groves, York, on March 14, last year.

John Edward Holmes, 29, assaulted the two victims after drinking seven pints of lager in a nearby pub. In court he pleaded guilty to two offences of actual bodily harm, but denied specific details of the attack.

At a special hearing, Judge Paul Hoffman heard evidence and decided that Holmes had broken Mark's nose, and kicked him "repeatedly". When Sharon, 42, tried to protect him, Holmes broke her jaw.

Sharon's injuries required several visits to hospital, and she had to have her jaw wired after a serious infection.

Holmes, of Lilling Avenue, York, was sentenced to 21 months behind bars on Friday.

Sharon said: "I can't describe what this has done to us. The physical pain was so bad at first, it was always at the forefront of my mind, but when it eased, it was the mental pain that really hurt.

"I'm always looking over my shoulder. We daren't go out at night socialising any more. It's like we're the ones doing the sentence.

"We've always been quite strong as a couple. At first we just clung together, with Mark looking after me as I got better. We gradually drifted into our own little world.

"If I go shopping and I'm gone a long time, Mark worries. If Mark's a long time, I worry. We worry unnecessarily, when normal people wouldn't think twice.

"You do read about people being attacked. You always think it is dreadful, but you never stop to think 'Why?'. When it actually does happen to you, that's what you think - and I don't think we will ever know why this happened to us."

Judge Hoffman told Holmes: "You have got yourself drunk, and I am prepared to accept that you acted out of character - but at the end of the evening Stannard had a broken nose. You assaulted him with your feet while he was on the ground. When Friend intervened to try to protect him, you broke her jaw."

In our original report of the court hearing, we mistakenly said the attack took place in a brawl in The Reindeer pub where Mark Stannard and Sharon Friend had been drinking. In fact there was no brawl and the couple were attacked close to their home. We apologise for the error and any distress it may have caused.

Updated: 10:14 Thursday, January 20, 2005