A WOMAN who witnessed an assault was warned that a sex secret would be revealed if she gave evidence in a criminal trial.

But victim Lisa Gillem refused not to give evidence and taped the threat from the girlfriend of a man charged with assault, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Mother-of-two Cheryl Weeks, 20, of Penfold Close, Maidstone was ordered to do 160 hours community work after she admitted intimidating a witness. Alexia Durran, prosecuting, said Weeks had gone to Miss Gillem's Maidstone home in October.

She said: "Weeks told her she had a message from her boyfriend but was not going to say it unless she was on her own and no one was about."

The two women agreed to meet up later but unknown to Weeks her threats were being taped. Weeks said the boyfriend didn't want to "touch her or interfere with her life" and that they planned to leave the area.

But when Miss Gillem said she wouldn't change her mind, Weeks said that if the boyfriend "went down, you are going down." Weeks added that her boyfriend "knew a secret about her involving matters of a sexual nature".

But Miss Gillem ordered Weeks to leave and passed the tape to police. Shona Gardiner, defending, said Weeks was "a naive young woman" who had not appreciated the gravity of what she had done.