A MOTHER-of-five has been cleared of deliberately running over her brother-in-law in an incident that left him paralysed.

Seven months pregnant Phoebe Clarke collapsed as a jury found her not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent at the end of an 11-day trial.

The 43-year-old, of Whitehall Lane, Slade Green, had denied the charge. Her husband, Ben Clarke, denied affray and was also acquitted.

His brother, John Clarke, had claimed that he was doing nothing wrong when Mrs Clarke’s Cherokee Jeep, with her five children in the back, went over him.

But Mrs Clarke’s defence was that it was an accident as she tried to get away from a frenzied machete attack by John Clarke.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that he suffered a serious spinal injury which resulted in him being a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair for life.

The incident was a tragic climax to a long-running feud between two sides of the family.

It started after a confrontation between Ben and Phoebe Clarke and John Clarke and his friend John Dibsdall at Whiffen Farm, Clement Street, Hextable, on July 12 last year.

A witness told how he saw four men fighting, with at least two of them armed with a pickaxe handle or baseball bat.

Andrew Collings, prosecuting, alleged that Mrs Clarke chased John Clarke, 44, in the Jeep and deliberately mowed him down.

When one onlooker went over to help badly injured Mr Clarke, a bloodstained machete was sticking out from under him.

Police arrived to find Ben Clarke, 37, and Dibsdall, 33, "locked in combat" and bleeding from head injuries.

John Clarke, who had tyre marks on his chest, was airlifted to Maidstone Hospital, where surgeons found that his spinal cord had been "obliterated". He also had a fractured pelvis and fractured ribs.

Mr Clarke watched from the well of the court as the jury of six men and six women returned unanimous not guilty verdicts on Monday after deliberating for just one-and-a-half hours.

After sliding off her seat in the dock, Mrs Clarke, who is expecting a Downs Syndrome baby in January, wept with relief.

Dibsdall, of Valley Park, Lower Road, Hextable, has admitted violent disorder and will be sentenced by Mr Recorder John Hillen at Woolwich Crown Court on November 25.