A YOUNG mum had a terrifying experience when she got into her car with her 16-week-old daughter only to find someone had cut her brake pipes.

Melanie Bebbington-Trengove was driving away from her grandparents' house when she realised her brakes were not working.

Luckily, the 23-year-old managed to stop the car but believes she and her family could have been killed as a result of the sick practical joke.

Police examined the Hyundai Pony car and discovered someone had crawled under the car and cut the brake lines with a sharp blade.

Melanie, who lives in the Infirmary area of Blackburn, was visiting her grandparents in Woodside Close, Rishton, when her car was sabotaged. She was with her husband Thomas, 27, and baby daughter Danielle when the brakes failed. Melanie said: "Luckily I wasn't going very fast when I tried to brake and I managed to slow the car down by going round a corner.

"At first I thought I had touched the wrong pedal but when I realised the brakes had completely failed it was a very frightening experience."

She said: "Normally when I go home I go straight down Blackburn Road and the first time I use the brakes is at Whitebirk roundabout.

"If the brakes had gone at the roundabout we could have all been dead. The road is very fast and there is always lots of traffic.

"I cannot think of anyone I know who would do something like this so the whole thing must have been some sort of sick joke.

"The most frightening thing is, whoever did this knew what they were doing and what pipe to cut. I wouldn't even know what a brake line looked like or where to look for one."

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