A MAN who exacted revenge on a school bully was jailed after a judge told him: "You can't take the law into your own hands."

Racist attacker Daniel Hobbs, 31 - who has a history of violence - was locked up for nine months at Teesside Crown Court.

He twice had skirmishes with the teenager after a friend's daughter said she had been bullied by him, and once her family had been abused.

During the first assault, Hobbs racially abused the boy, prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Judge Peter Armstrong.

He warned the lad he would kill him if he "ever did anything like that again", punched him and bit him on the neck, during a struggle.

Months later, the teenager - said to be a trouble-maker with more than 18 fights in school - approached the girl and her family in a park.

He is said to have insulted the class-mate's young disabled sister, which made angry Hobbs go looking for him.

Hobbs said he just wanted to scare the boy, but when he found him and grabbed him in a head-lock, he threatened: "I'll end it this time."

The teenager was punched in the face and needed stitches to the inside and outside of his mouth in hospital, Miss Haigh told the court.

Jeff Taylor, mitigating, said Hobbs - who has more than 50 offences on his record - was of the misguided belief he was helping his friend.

Judge Armstrong said: "The background of this is he had been causing trouble by way of some form of bullying to your friend's daughter.

"The serious aspect is, of course, that you effectively were taking the law into your own hands, and you must not do that."

Hobbs, of Keith Road, Middlesbrough, admitted charges of racially-aggravated common assault, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He has five other assaults on his record - including one which was racially-aggravated, when he kicked and punched his victim in 2010.

Mr Taylor said: "This was not, at the outset, a case of race or colour. It was a consequence of a misguided belief he was assisting a friend."