A takeaway owner who fought back against the thugs who tormented his family has won a 12-month battle for justice.

Sui Yau Mok, 52, snapped after months of abuse by a gang of teenage yobs.

He lashed out at one of them, dousing him in scalding chip fat.

But he was horrified when his desperate attempt to end the abuse that almost drove his wife to suicide landed him in court.

Yesterday, members of a jury wept as they heard how Mr Mok's life and livelihood had been devastated by the abuse - before clearing him of a charge of actual bodily harm.

For months, the thug and his gang persecuted the family.

They would turn up at their shop, Dicksons Fish Bar in Beaconsfield Road, Brighton, to taunt and insult them, described to the court as "Chinese baiting".

Mr Mok, speaking through an interpreter, told the court how the yobs had repeatedly smashed his windows and once spat in his wife's face and threw chips at her.

When asked why he did not call the police, Mr Mok said: "Every time I rang them they would come after an hour."

The thugs stepped up their abuse last July, coming into the shop every day.

Problems came to a head on July 30 when about three youths entered the shop and one became abusive.

Frightened and frustrated by his daily nightmare, Mr Mok said he finally reacted by throwing a ladle of cooking oil at the abusive youth.

Mr Mok, originally from China, said he thought, mistakenly, the oil had been cold.

The court heard how it burnt the youth's skin, leaving him with some scars.

Mr Mok said: "He was very aggressive. He came in looking as though he wanted a fight. I was quite afraid at the time.

"My wife Christine was very afraid. She was shaking and her face changed colour."

Mr Mok said the youth threatened to damage items in the shop.

He said: "That night he was drunk. He had a bottle and my wife was frightened.

"So I poured some cold oil on him so hopefully he would go away. At the time I didn't know the oil was hot. I didn't want to harm him physically."

Mrs Mok, who burst into tears while giving evidence in the dock, said she had been repeatedly harassed by the youth in July last year.

Speaking through an interpreter, she said: "He came every day. Sometimes several times a day to harass me.

"Because I can't speak proper English and sometimes my pronunciation is not correct he would mock me and laugh at my accent.

"Before the incident I was healthy. After that incident I felt mentally destroyed."

Mrs Mok said she twice visited a doctor because of the harassment.

The events had ruined her life and almost driven her to suicide.

She said: "This incident has destroyed my whole life. If I had money and didn't have to work, I would like to leave England forever. That night I was going to kill myself.

"I didn't want to live any more because they came every day. I didn't want to live in this world any more. I didn't want to see them any more."

Lewes Crown Court, sitting at Horsham Magistrates Court, heard the youth had a list of previous offences, including a conviction for harassment relating to the incident on July 30.

He had been arrested on July 15 after being abusive in the shop, two weeks before Mr Mok reacted.

Philip Grey, defending Mr Mok, described the youth as "an aggressive, arrogant, racist, dishonest young man.

He said: "He is a thug. Over the totality of July he had tortured the owners of the shop. He went in there for a bit of Chinese baiting, highly amusing for him I'm sure."

Kerry Maylin, prosecuting, said: "He behaved in a manner not any one of us would have been proud of or wish any one of our relations to have behaved in.

"But does that allow for what occurred to him? Does it make it right?"

However, at the end of a two-day trial, the jury found Mr Mok not guilty of actual bodily harm against the youth.

His wife, daughter and supporters burst into tears at the result, which ended a year-long nightmare for the family, who have run the shop for 11 years.