A MAN has been jailed after lying to police about witnessing an assault in Blackburn which left a man in a coma.

Naeem Patel, 25, of Shear Brow in the town, admitted to a charge of perverting the course of public justice when he appeared at Burnley Crown Court.

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It related to an assault on Suhail Dinsi, who was then 31, on December 3, 2013.

The court heard that Mr Dinsi was set upon by two men after he left the Kutting Edge Barbers in Shear Brow.

Sohail Ahmed and Tanveer Ahmed, then 20 and 39 respectively, were arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent and later charged.

Both men were later acquitted after a trial by jury.

But the court heard that after seeing a witness appeal in the Lancashire Telegraph Patel contacted the police on December 10 to make a statement claiming that Sohail and Tanveer carried out the attack.

The level of detail that Patel went in to convinced the police that he must have witnessed the attack.

But it transpired that it was another man who had allegedly witnessed the assault and Patel was just going off what he had been told.

That man, who Patel wouldn't name, refused to go to the police through fear of reprisals and still hasn't come forward to this day.

Patel said he only came forward because of his close relationship with the complainant's brother.

But his lie was unravelled when CCTV footage showed he couldn't possibly have witnessed the attack.

Sentencing Patel to six months imprisonment, Judge Simon Newell, said: "These courts here at Burnley are very used to hearing cases of perverting the course of justice or witness intimidation.

"There are crime that appear in this area and this community it seems to me more regularly than other areas and other communities.

"There appears to be a tendency to try and determine matters outside the court process and outside the proper police investigations.

"It seems to me when that happens it is only right, so justice can be done properly, there are deterrent sentences so the community that is dealt with by Burnley Crown Court knows that this sort of interference with justice will not be tolerated."