TWO women attacked another after arranging to meet her in a Blackburn park to sort out an argument over a boyfriend, a court was told.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Tanzilla Akram was punched and kicked in the face and head in a row over her alleged relationship with the boyfriend of one of her assailants.

And the court was told that as a result of the attack Miss Akram had needed to take sleeping pills and had been unfit for work because of depression.

Laura Dawson, 21, of Stonyhurst Road, Blackburn, and Nichola Jane Woolaghan, 24, of Peridot Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to assaulting Miss Akram. They were each given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £75 compensation and £65 costs.

Teresa Feeley, prosecuting, said Miss Akram had received a phone call from Dawson asking her to meet at the park.

Stephen Parker, defending Dawson, said his client had made full and frank admissions to the police when she was arrested. But Jonathon Taylor, defending Woolaghan, said his client only pleaded guilty on the basis that she had punched Miss Akram once.

Mr Parker said the three women had been friends. He said Miss Akram claimed she had been asked by Dawson if she had had a liaison with her boyfriend. "My client would say it was the other way round and the aggrieved was boasting that she had slept with her boyfriend," said Mr Parker.