A COURT has heard how a terrified mum-of-three pleaded with a group of masked men before they smashed up her Bradford home during a late-night attack last summer.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that the gang, most of whom were wearing balaclava masks, used metal bars to smash windows at the house on Duchy Drive, Heaton, before a black 4x4 vehicle was deliberately rammed into a Chrysler and a Ford Focus parked outside.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford described how a gold-coloured 4x4 had pulled up outside the house at about 11.30pm on June 27 and the woman could hear two males apparently talking about her partner.

Miss Langford said the woman became frightened when her partner turned up out of breath and saying he had been chased.

The gold-coloured car left, but when it returned ten minutes later four or five men carrying iron bars got out of the vehicle and came towards the house shouting:"Where is he?"

Miss Langford said the woman pleaded with the men saying that her partner wasn't there, but they began smashing windows in the living room, front porch and kitchen.

At that time a black Shogun or Land Rover-type vehicle turned up and it was used to ram the Chrysler and the Ford Focus.

The court heard that 24-year-old Waqas Hussain, who had been a passenger in the black 4x4, got out armed with a metal bar and used it to smash the windows of the Ford Focus.

Hussain, of Duchy Crescent, Heaton, was not wearing a balaclava or any disguise and Miss Langford said some of his blood was later found on the damaged vehicle.

Yesterday Hussain pleaded guilty to a charge of affray, but his barrister Rodney Ferm submitted that his client had not been an organiser or frontrunner in the offending.

Mr Ferm revealed that Hussain had been on the "protection wing" at HMP Leeds since his remand in custody and he had served the equivalent of an eight-month jail term already.

He argued that Hussain, who has served a lengthy custodial sentence in the past for Class A drug trafficking offences, had been stupid to get involved in the way he did.

"The person here to face the music at the end of the day is in fact one of the lesser figures in this enterprise," Mr Ferm said.

Recorder Abdul Iqbal QC said the men had been trying to "hunt down" the woman's partner that night and the photographs he had seen showed extensive damage to her house.

He said the complainant had been left feeling scared and suffering nightmares.

Jailing Hussain for 13 months Recorder Iqbal concluded that the defendant had been summoned as "reinforcement" by the attackers in the gold-coloured car.