A MOTHER accused of assaulting a schoolboy by smashing a brick into his face wept as she was found not guilty.

Samantha Firth-Corner was cleared of causing actual bodily harm to the 15-year-old after a trial at Teesside Crown Court.

She sobbed and thanked the jury as she left the dock, and hugged her partner in the public gallery after the verdict.

The jury of eight women and four men took just an hour to acquit the mother-of-three, from Bedale, North Yorkshire.

The judge, Recorder Edward Bindloss, told her: "That's the end of the matter. You leave without a stain on your character."

Mrs Firth-Corner, 43, told the jury during the three-day trial that she acted only to protect her son from a gang attack.

Trouble flared in the garden of a house in Pinewood Grove, Bedale, following a boozy 16th birthday party in May last year.

The injured teenager lost "significant parts" of his two front teeth when he was struck in the face with a rock or brick.

The prosecution claimed it was a deliberate act, sparked when the defendant lost her temper following a row about drugs.

Mrs Firth-Corner insisted she was trying to push past the boy to help her son as he was be in kicked and punched on the ground.

She said her son had been "pounced on" by up to five people, and her only intention was to save him from the "horrible" beating.

During her evidence, she said she wanted to scare the attackers with the rock, and did not use it as a weapon on the victim.

Prosecution witnesses said the lump of masonry - the size of an A4 piece of paper - was deliberately thrown at the teenager.

Mrs Firth-Corner maintained that she did not want to hurt the boy, telling the jury: "I did not hit that child."

She said she momentarily forgot the rock was in her hand, and added: "I feel terrible that the altercation has caused that to him."

During her evidence, she said it had been a difficult year in which her son blamed himself for her potentially facing jail.

Mrs Firth-Corner, of Oak Tree Road, Bedale, is 5ft 5ins, while the teenager is close to 6ft, the jury heard in the trial.

She said: "I just wanted to stop them attacking. I wanted to protect my son. I'm a mum, that's my job."