Judge orders drunken Leeds mum who headbutted police officer to 'fix' alcohol problem

Officers found Kelly Marsh causing a disturbance outside a property and throwing plant pots when they were called to Crossman Drive in Normanton in the early hours of February 13 this year.

Prosecutor Anthony Moore told Leeds Crown Court: "She was clearly upset about something and clearly in drink."

The officers persuaded her to sit in the back of their vehicle before checks on the police computer database showed that she was wanted on a warrant in Nottinghamshire.

The mum-of-two told them that she had already been dealt with - which later transpired to be true - but the officers said she needed to be arrested until the matter was resolved.

As a male officer then tried to put the handcuffs on her, she lunged at him and headbutted him on the bridge of the nose but did not cause any injury.

Mr Moore said the 32-year-old initially denied carrying out any attack when interviewed later but went on to accept that she had lashed out and "was embarrassed about her behaviour" after being shown body-worn camera footage from the officer.

She admitted a charge of assaulting an emergency worker.

Moore, of Compton Avenue, Harehills, has 29 convictions for 50 offences, including assaulting an officer in 2017 and further incidents involving her being drunk and disorderly.

Also in court: Teen locked up after viciously assaulting woman on train to Leeds

Mitigating, Soheil Khan said: "Her problem is drink, and it seems to me that she does not have a great history of real intervention as far as her drink problem is concerned."

The judge, Recorder Harry Vann, told Marsh: "Emergency workers should not have to fear for their safety. Assaults on emergency workers are serious offences.

"You have a significant previous record and I can't overlook that.

"Equally, I can't overlook that you were in drink, but there is clearly genuine remorse.

"You have an alcohol problem and you need to fix that. I do not see how you will stay out of the courts otherwise."

He handed her a 12-month community order, with a 90-day alcohol abstinence requirement.

She was also given a three-month electronically-tagged curfew order to keep at her home address each evening.

This article was first published by the Wakefield Express.