A gamekeeper was beaten with a baseball bat in his own home after threatening to put embarrassing pictures of a former girlfriend on Facebook.

New boyfriend Joseph Tremlett lay in wait armed with a baseball bat after Jessica Ervig let him into her ex-boyfriend's flat.

Ervig then lured Jack Pearce back to the flat with a text message saying she was there and wanted to meet up.

But prosecutor Julian Kesner told Gloucester Crown Court that when Mr Pearce arrived home, he was subjected to a violent beating by Tremlett, a former best friend.

Mr Pearce, who had worked with Tremlett as a gamekeeper, suffered a complicated fracture to his left arm and head injuries in the violent beating, Mr Kesner said.

Tremlett, 23, of Cobbett road, Guildford, Surrey, was jailed for four years and eight months after pleading guilty to wounding Mr Pearce with intent to do him grievous bodily harm.

Ervig, 20, of Milling Crescent, Aylburton admitted affray by facilitating Tremlett to enter Mr Pearce's flat knowing he intended unlawful violence.

Judge William Hart told her she should be ashamed of herself and sentenced her to 45 weeks jail suspended for two years and ordered her to do 180 hours of unpaid work.

Mr Kesner told the judge that the two men had been the "best of friends" until Ervig ended her relationship with Mr Pearce.

They continued to work together but the catalyst for the attack came when Mr Pearce told Ervig that he had pictures of her on his telephone that he intended to post on the internet social networking site, Facebook.

"This was not true but he said it to annoy her. It plainly did," Mr Kesner said.

At around 8.30pm on November 19 Mr Pearce received a text message saying Ervig was in his flat.

But when he arrived Tremlett hit him with a baseball bat and as the pair struggled he fell and hurt his head.

The prosecution told the court Ervig knew where the key was kept, took Tremlett to the flat and watched him go in with the bat.

Sabhia Pathan, defending, said both Tremlett and Ervig were both young people of previous good character.

She said Tremlett was extremely remorseful and fully accepted responsibility for what he had done.

Ervig had difficulty in coming to terms with her situation and was remorseful.

She was fully aware of the impact her actions were having on her family.

Jailing Tremlett, Judge Hart said it was difficult to understand why a man who had never been in trouble attacked a man who had been his friend in his own home.

The attack caused head injuries and the victim still had difficulty in moving his left arm, he said.

He accepted it had been an isolated incident and gave Tremlett full credit for his previous good character and early guilty plea.