A MURDER suspect's sister tried to derail his trial by assaulting a key witness in the street and telling her to change her evidence.

Kimberley McCabe warned her cousin Tina McCabe: "You've put in a statement against our David . . . you'd better f***ing retract it."

David McCabe was accused of murdering Teresa Ryan by starting a fire in her home to cover up a burglary he had carried out.

He was cleared of the killing, but was jailed for five-and-a-half years for targeting the disabled 50-year-old with two break-ins.

Yesterday, the 32-year-old's younger sister was locked up for 16 months after she admitted a charge of intimidating a witness.

Mother-of-two McCabe was arrested for confronting her cousin on December 9 - five weeks before the murder trial was to start.

Tina McCabe gave crucial prosecution evidence, saying the murder suspect told her he had struggled with Miss Ryan the night she died.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds told Teesside Crown Court she was a "significant" witness and said McCabe had tried to stop her telling the truth.

In a chance meeting in Middlesbrough, the 31-year-old defendant slapped her cousin across the face and issued the threat.

Her lawyer, Andrew White, told the court: "It was a one-off isolated incident, not a course of conduct or a campaign.

"This isn't a case of a violent thug tracking down a witness in order to terrorise them into not giving evidence, or a bigger, stronger person having a go at a weaker person.

"Kimberley McCabe did something she clearly should not have done. It was foolish of her. She regrets that. It was completely out of character."

He said McCabe, of Teare Close, Middlesbrough, had been separated from her children while being held on remand since her arrest.

Urging the judge to impose a suspended sentence, he added: "She is desperately worried about the two boys, and clearly, they need their mam."

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told McCabe: "This is a serious offence and will always be treated as such, because the effect of it is to influence the smooth running of public justice.

"There is no basis for suspending it, notwithstanding you have two children.

"The message has to go from this court that those who carry out this sort of offence will receive immediate sentences of imprisonment."