A MAN has been found guilty of conspiring to commit a series of violent attacks on a Poole fitness instructor.

Keith Harby, 39, of Long Eaton, Nottingham, was convicted of conspiring with three other men of attacking Kelly Batchelor over the head with a hammer-type object outside Ashdown Leisure Centre in Poole, where she worked, and outside her home.

The plan was the idea of one man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, because his girlfriend thought he was having an affair with her.

Harby was found guilty this week following a two-week trial at Winchester Crown Court. His co-defendants Robbie Northridge, 19, of no fixed abode, and Lanelle Douglas, 27, of High Main Drive, Bestwood Village, Nottingham, were acquitted of the same charge.

Co-conspirators John Doyle, 35, of Alfredon, Derbyshire, and Ian Edgeworth, 26, of Northwood Road, Nottingham, and the unnamed man who invented the plan, all pleaded guilty before the start of the trial. The four will be sentenced on July 26.

Winchester Crown Court said the men conspired to attack Miss Batchelor on three occasions.

The first took place at Ashdown Leisure Centre in Poole on August 30 last year as Miss Batchelor returned to her car.

Fortunately she escaped serious injury thanks to the intervention of members of the public. The second attack` happened on September 4 but was unsuccessful because they were unable to find their target.

And the third incident happened the following day when Miss Batchelor was attacked with a weapon as she returned home in Wavell Avenue.

Prosecutor Stephen Climie said the attacks were the result of a relationship breakdown between Miss Batchelor and the unnamed co-conspirator’s girlfriend in the early part of 2012.