A MOTHER-of-two was involved in an Accrington kebab shop melee in which two women and a teenager were assaulted.

Joan Thomas, 29, headbutted and punched a 17-year-old boy in an unprovoked attack in the early hours at the Petra shop, Whalley Road, last September.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Thomas, who had no previous convictions for violence, was said by the victim to have been "angry, gritting her teeth and shouting abuse," when she launched her head at him and then hit him in thre face.

The teenager, who then spotted a knife on another woman involved in the trouble and bravely took it off her, felt the defendant would have hurt him had she been bigger.

Thomas, of Whalley Road, Clayton-le-Moors admitted affray and common assault. She was given 16 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months.

Sentencing, Recorder Andrew Nuttall told the defendant the incident had been extremely unpleasant and she and her two accomplices had been abusive and violent.

Philip Holden, defending, said Thomas had met the two others involved, who were from a travelling community, that evening and they were far more involved in the violence which took place in the shop.