A mum who admitted her part in an attack on a woman who later killed herself has been given a two year community order.
Natalie Finley, 30, of Dallas Street, Plungington, admitted actual bodily harm on 37-year-old Antoinette Brown at Preston Crown Court.
Andrew Scott, prosecuting, described how the victim, a mum-of-three, had had an argument with Miss Finley’s mother in the Bears Paw pub, Preston, on the evening of May 20 last year.
She later phoned Natalie Finley, who said they should resolve the matter and she invited her to her home in Plungington.
The victim went home first and went to sleep. She decided to go to Finley’s house at 5am.
When she was let in she saw Patrick Gray, Finley’s co-defendant. Gray locked the front door and the pair then started to attack her.
She was repeatedly punched and kicked in her head.
She was seen injured in the street by a police officer who called an ambulance and went to Finley’s home.
The officer found a bloodstained white vest and a blue striped jumper in the washing machine.
Antoinette Brown, known as Toni to loved ones, killed herself three weeks after the attack.
Judge Michael Byrne said it should be publicly recognised the “sad fact had nothing to do with this offence”, but in a previous hearing sentencing Finley’s co-defendant Gray, he accepted while no legal link can be found between death and the attack, the emotional impact may have contributed.
Sentencing, he said: “You’ve recently given birth and I don’t think it’s right to separate you from your recently born child. Don’t put yourself in this position again.”
Patrick Gray, 30, of Skipton Street, Morecambe, previously leaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, but said he was trying to defend Finley.
He is serving 32 months in prison.