A WOMAN who threatened to kill a witness whose evidence helped put her robber cousin in prison is now herself behind bars.

Nicola Burnside wept as a judge told her he could not suspend the jail sentence for crimes which “strikes at the heart of justice”.

A court heard the vengeful 45-year-old still can’t accept the conviction of cousin, Scott Irving, 33, from Darlington.

He was jailed for five years in May for a bungled attempt to rob the New Sing Lee Curry House in the town’s Eastbourne Road.

But a judge told him he could serve much longer and will only be freed once the Parole Board consider it’s safe to do so.

That’s because Irving is on a lifetime licence recall for a series of similar armed attacks on small businesses more than a decade ago.

A month after he was jailed, his cousin Burnside turned up at the home of a prosecution witness and made serious threats.

The woman reported the frightening visit to police and Burnside was issued with a harassment warning to stay away.

But three weeks later, Burnside saw the mother in her car, turned around in the road and followed her.

The pair ended up outside the home of the witness’s parents – where she had been staying because her son was too afraid to go home.

Teesside Crown Court heard how a shouting match turned to “physical contact” before the woman’s father came out with a hammer.

Burnside, of Hammond Drive, Darlington, admitted threatening to take revenge and harassment, and was jailed for seven months.

Her barrister, Ian West, said: “She was clearly highly emotional as a result of the trial which resulted in her cousin being convicted.

“She has struggled to deal with that for a continuing time.”

Judge Simon Hickey told Burnside: “Both these offences involve the same victim and arise from her giving evidence at the trial.

“You could not accept the verdict, and you could not accept that she gave evidence, and thought your cousin was wrongly convicted.

“That’s up to you. What isn’t up to you is to go to that woman’s house and threaten her and abuse her. She says in her statement there were threats against her life.

“Neither of them were chance encounters. It has had an effect on this lady, but not only her, also her son.

“It strikes at the heart of justice if you go to find a witness who has given evidence in a trial and try to threaten.

“The Court of Appeal says there has to be a deterrent element. This is not a campaign, but it is not an isolated incident.”