A doting father who used a walking stick to hit school bullies terrorising his daughter walked free from court yesterday.

The 49-year-old Brighton man lashed out when a mob of baying youngsters surrounded his car and hurled abuse at the tearful 14-year-old cowering inside.

The youths were from the girl's old school, from which she had been moved because she was persistently bullied and physically assaulted, partly on religious grounds.

The man was arrested by police for assault, despite insisting he was merely defending his daughter.

But yesterday a jury delivered a clear message when they supported his actions by insisting on clearing him before his trial had even finished.

In a highly unusual move, the jurors sent a note to the judge asking him to acquit the man before his summing up.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, leapt to his child's aid last September after picking her up from her new school.

As they got home, their red Metro was surrounded by up to 60 pupils from a previous school, where the girl had been victimised for being a Jehovah's Witness.

As they screamed and banged on windows, the greying, bespectacled father rushed into his house to get a walking stick, which he waved around to disperse them.

Two 12-year-old girls were hit in the fracas and the man was charged with two counts of common assault and possessing an offensive weapon.

Martyn Field, prosecuting, told Lewes Crown Court: "He came out shouting at some of the children. He struck one of the girls two or three times on the back and caused that girl some injuries.

"One of the girl's friends went to help and he struck her on the hand causing her great pain.

"He got the walking stick with the intention of wounding the children and that is what he did."

Jeremy Gold, defending, said the father, who had brought the girl up alone since her mother's death five years ago, had every right to protect her.

He said: "What drives a man of 49 to hit a 12-year-old with a walking stick but the sight of a baying crowd around the car in which his vulnerable daughter is sitting crying? What he did was entirely justified, both morally and legally."

He said the man had never been known to lose his temper before.The offensive weapon charge was dropped during the trial and the jury cleared him of the two common assaults.

The jurors' sentiments were echoed by the judge, Recorder Ian Wilson, who said he expected action to be taken against the children involved in the "appalling episode" if they tormented the father or his daughter again.

After the trial, the father,said: "I never break the law because I respect it, but my daughter was trapped and hysterical."