TWO friends who launched a vicious street attack on another woman were behind bars last night for their “outrageous behaviour in public”.

A judge told Nicola McAndrew and Andrea Hayes that they could have killed their victim during the beating in County Durham last autumn.

McAndrew, 25, from Peterlee, and mother-of-two Hayes, 36, from Seaham, were jailed for seven months after admitting a charge of affray.

Judge Sean Morris, sitting at Teesside Crown Court yesterday, heard how their victim had been the former girlfriend of Hayes’s new partner.

When they came face-to-face in Seaham Harbour on October 3, the two pals “pursued” the woman through the streets for half-an-hour.

The frightened victim hid in shops and emerged when she thought it was safe to, said prosecutor Peter Sabiston, and was immediately attacked.

Hayes had yelled at her: “I’ll come in every f****** shop and find you” before knocking her to the ground, and again after she got to her feet.

Judge Morris described the incident as “prolonged and determined” and told the pair: “It is just luck that no serious injury occurred.

“These courts have seen many many examples of where someone leaves an attack like that apparently uninjured and gone to sit down and died.

“That’s because the brain was bleeding, even though there wasn’t a bruise to be seen. People who kick on the ground, run the risk of killing.”

Mr Sabiston told the court how Hayes punched and kicked and pulled the hair of the victim before passers-by intervened in the violence.

As the woman fled to call the police, her legs were swept from under her by McAndrew, who then repeatedly stamped on her back.

In an interview after her arrest three weeks later, she said she was told by Hayes “to drop her” so did.

Hayes admitted she did not like the other woman, and told police she had “brayed her” and “punched her all over”.

In an impact statement read to the court, the victim said: “I’m scared for my safety and just want this to end.”

Ian Hudson, for Hayes, of Maple Crescent, Seaham, told the judge: “Injuries were non-existent, but you might think that’s more good fortune.”

Martin Scarborough, for McAndrew, of Hale Rise, Peterlee, said: “She is remorseful and quite insightful now. She was at a very low point.”

Judge Morris told the pair: “Members of the public would have been outraged. It was a prolonged and determined attack.”