A TEENAGER has told a court how she saw a mother, who had waded into a fight to save her daughter, kick one of her friends several times in the face.

Christiane Harvey said she saw Deborah McKay attack the girl near the White Horse pub in Little Lever. She told a court that she witnessed the parent leave the pub and then try to separate the two girls who were pulling each other's hair.

Miss Harvey said that there was a lot of fighting going on at the time and she did not see how the brawl between Kate McKay and the other girl had started. She said she did not take any part in the fight. She told the court in cross-examination that she saw McKay kick Claire Smith several times in the face.

The teenager said her friend suffered a facial injury and her lip was badly swollen.

She helped take her friend home but she fainted on the way. Yesterday, McKay, aged 33, of Ainsworth Road, Little Lever, appeared at Bolton Crown Court on the second day of her trial.

She faces one charge of assaulting Claire Smith occasioning her actual bodily harm on November 4, 2000. She denies the charge. The court heard previously that trouble had been ongoing between two rival gangs of girls in the Little Lever area.

A fight had broken out between Kate McKay and two other girls after a bonfire outside the White Horse pub had been cancelled because of rain.

(Proceeding)