A TEENAGE squaddie who showed "outstanding promise" has left her army career in tatters after being sent to prison following a violent late-night street attack.

Katie Trickett, 19, repeatedly stamped on her victim and hit him with a bottle but sobbed uncontrollably as a judge handed out a six-month sentence at Burnley Crown Court.

Trickett, whose three co-defendants have also been jailed, is training with the Royal Logistics Corps.

She had been described by her captain as an exemplary recruit but the court heard she acted like an animal on the night of the attack.

Captain Anne Scannell watched the video of the attack and told the judge: "I find it very hard to believe that that is her."

She said Trickett was intelligent and robust with lots of courage and showed great character in a tough training environment.

Trickett, of Pilkington Drive, Clayton-le-Moors, admitted affray and assault causing actual bodily harm. She had been committed for sentence by Hyndburn Magistrates.

Mark Lamberty, prosecuting, said victim Shafique Mohammed was attacked in Accrington.

When Mr Mohammed was on the ground, the defendant had kicked or stamped on him half a dozen times and delivered four blows with a bottle until it broke. She then walked away. Trickett had no previous convictions.

Anthony Cross, defending, said that when he saw the film he thought the defendant should go to jail, but her circumstances were now such that any right-thinking member of the public would think it quite wrong.

Trickett, a county standard runner, had never been an academic but had had several good jobs, including working at a riding centre for the disabled, before joining the Army.

Mr Cross said that Trickett had got involved with others not of her ilk and into a social scene completely at odds with everything she had been brought up to believe in. The court case had been a catastrophe for Trickett and her parents. She was now a responsible person.