A young man has been jailed for carrying out a revenge attack - with a judge issuing a stark warning that victims and witnesses who go to court will get his backing.

Declan Joe Brown, 21, of Newton Arlosh, was given a nine-month prison sentence.

The court had heard how he carried out a three-month campaign of “intimidation and hostility” against a woman who had given evidence at a trial involving a third party last year.

He posted insults and threats on social media website Facebook before events culminated at Wigton’s Royal British Legion club on July 3 last year, a court heard.

Brown made a number of threats before he punched Dion Studholme, making him fall outside the club, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Judge Peter Davies refused to give Brown a “second chance” as requested by his defence representative Greg Hoare.

The judge said that the attack “strikes at the very heart” of the justice system and that no-one should be “deterred” from giving evidence, adding that Brown’s act of revenge was “deliberate and purposeful”.

Judge Davies said: “It was not spontaneous, it was premeditated and continuous.”

As he sentenced Brown yesterday, the judge said: “If I follow Mr Hoare’s suggestion then it sends a message that those giving evidence these people will not be protected and those seeking revenge will get away with it – not in my court Mr Brown.”

Brown had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to two charges, one of taking revenge and another of assaulting Dion Studholme.

Brown was also given a two-month sentence for the assault. It will run concurrently to the longer sentence.

Before delivering his sentence, the judge had heard how Brown had grown in maturity since the trouble a year ago and was working for a firm alongside his father.