A MAN who was taunted with a photograph of his girlfriend in bed with a love rival and stabbed him at an arranged fight was last night starting a lengthy prison sentence.

Liam Broadbent was furious when the picture was sent to his mobile phone of Sam Smith and Lauren Bellerby at a house party 35 miles away on December 1 last year.

During a series of angry exchanges on text messages, 24-year-old Broadbent invited Mr Smith, 18, to Billingham, near Stockton, to sort out their differences.

Mr Smith travelled from the party in Newcastle with friends Dale Mathie and John Wilkins - driven by hospital worker Miss Bellerby - for the morning showdown.

Parents on the 8am school-run drove past as the men gathered next to a main road and began fighting, prosecutor Tamara Pawson told Teesside Crown Court today (Thursday, September 22).

After an initial brawl involving Broadbent using a baton and Mr Smith unleashing a flurry of punches, the two rivals separated and Broadbent got in Miss Bellerby's car.

The court heard how after Mr Smith taunted him as they left busy Low Grange Avenue, he got out of the vehicle with a knife and stabbed the teenager in the abdomen.

Martial arts instructor Mathie, 20, picked up the blade and knifed Broadbent's friend, Colin Quinn, 35, from Ferryhill, County Durham, just below his right rib-cage.

Miss Pawson told the court that there were "numerous" witnesses, and one mother told how a Broadbent approached her car, saying: "My mate has been stabbed."

Many calls were made to the emergency services as Mr Smith was "slouched" by a fence, the court heard, and Mr Quinn was lying in an alleyway nearby.

Mr Quinn - who was also initially charged, but eventually had no evidence offered against him - had a life-threatening wound to a major artery near his bowel.

Mr Smith suffered a lacerated spleen with bleeding into his abdomen, and could also have died without emergency surgery to remove the damaged organ.

Broadbent, of Stanhope Road, Billingham, admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and was locked up for eight years and eight months.

Mathie, of Holburn Road, Stockton, denied the same charge, and was cleared by a jury. He was found guilty of unlawful wounding and jailed for two-and-a-half years.

His barrister, Richard Bennett, told the judge, Recorder Rachael Harrison: "He is mortified by his behaviour. It was wholly uncharacteristic and he deeply regrets it."

Andrew Turton, for Broadbent, said: "The incident was provoked by virtue of a text message that was sent and a photo showing his partner in bed with another male."