Four young women have been locked up for launching a "vigilante" attack on a vulnerable woman they falsely accused of being a child-molester.

Bradford Crown Court heard how the 23-year-old victim, described as being inadequate and with a low IQ, was invited to a flat in Bingley.

Once inside, she was slapped across the face, had her hair shorn to within an inch of her scalp, had stripes and crosses drawn in lipstick on her face, made to lick her own urine from a settee, had a jug of water poured over her and told she would be thrown out of a window.

She was finally bundled into the boot of a hatchback car and taken to a cemetery, before being dumped outside Airedale General Hospital, near Keighley, said prosecutor John Hitchen.

Her 90-minute ordeal followed rumours that she had been sexually abusing young children.

Her four attackers pleaded guilty to common assault. Julie Nelson, 29, of Brunswick House, Bingley, was jailed for 60 days; Marie Wilmore, 18, of Madison Avenue, Holme Wood; Natalie Huxham, 20, of Victoria Road, Keighley; and Shellie Mercer, 18, of Langlands Road, Cottingley, were all sent to a young offenders' institution for 60 days.

Passing sentence, Judge Stephen Gullick said: "It was for her an appalling and terrifying experience. It was vigilante behaviour of the very worst type against a vulnerable victim.

"She had done none of you wrong. You showed little, if any, mercy."

The court was told how rumours began to "circulate" between the four women and others that she was a paedophile.

Mr Hitchen said she was liable to take a child into her flat and play with it. But he stressed there was no evidence to suggest that she had "sexually interfered" with a child.

Mitigating for Nelson, Jayne Chaplain said her client got "carried away" and "lost it".

Representing Huxham, Lesley Dickinson told the court: "She said she deserves to be punished and must pay the price for joining in unforgivable activities on that night."

Mitigating for Wilmore, Michelle Colbourne, said: "It would be wrong of me to minimise the trauma and wretchedness the complainant felt on the night of this incident."

Mitigating for Mercer, Stephen Wood said: "Had she not made these admissions she would not have been prosecuted."