A NIGHTCLUB dancer suffered horrific facial injuries when she was kung-fu kicked by her ex-boyfriend and assaulted by his new partner.

The woman was getting ready for work when Kristofer Millward, 34, and Stacey Richardson, 30, turned up at her home in Hartlepool.

Richardson was under the wrong impression that she  had said something hurtful about her ill daughter, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The pair had exchanged angry messages on Facebook before the night-time confrontation in June last year, said prosecutor Paul Abrahams.

Mother-of-two Richardson started throwing punches at the 26-year-old pole-dancer before they grappled and fell onto a sofa.

Millward was outside wrecking the woman's Audi A4 car but then came into the house and punched her in the face while Richardson held her.

Their terrified victim tried to escape throughout window, but as Richardson pulled at her legs to stop her, Millward punched her again.

The brute then charged at her and delivered "a significant blow" - a karate kick to the face - which fractured her cheekbone and nose.

Millward, of no fixed abode, was jailed for three years after he admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent in the incident.

Richardson left court laughing with a friend, saying "I can't believe I didn't get locked up" after she was given a community order with supervision.

Her barrister, Ian Mullarkey, said Millward accepted being sole responsibility for the serious injury although Richardson joined the assault.

"She could not have foreseen the extent of the assault and injury that would follow," Mr Mullarkey told Judge George Moorhouse on Friday.

The court heard that Millward has 33 offences on his criminal record, including a grievous bodily harm in 2008 when he fractured a man's jaw.

He was jailed in December, but Richardson's case was delayed because reports by probation workers into her background had not been compiled.

Judge Moorhouse told her: "You lost your temper, punched her, pulled her hair, and you were later joined by Mr Millward who kicked her."

At the last hearing, Millward's barrister, Rod Hunt, told the court: "This was not a premeditated offence. It arose from domestic turbulence."