Larne woman spat in the face of charity shop manager after claiming police were chasing her

In addition, Imelda Collins was also ordered to pay £300 compensation to her victim.

Collins, from Greenway in Larne, had admitted common assault and attempting to cause criminal damage to a glass cabinet in a NI Hospice Charity shop.

Opening the facts of the case on Thursday, a prosecuting lawyer told Ballymena Magistrates Court it was on 4 March this year when Collins ran into the charity shop claiming “the police were after her” so she had to hide.

“The manager in the shop asked her to leave and refused to let her hide inside,” said the lawyer, adding that Collins “would be well known to staff as she used to work there.”

“The staff provided statements describing that she spat on the manager and threw items over the shop,” she told the court and when District Judge Nigel Broderick asked where the spittle landed, the PPS lawyer told him: “In the lady’s face.”

Officers who were called to the scene found Collins “hiding in the library” and when she was interviewed, ”she made admissions and was apologetic.”

Defence counsel Thomas McKeever confirmed in fact the police were not chasing Collins and nor was anyone else.

“She is a vulnerable lady,” the barrister told the court, emphasising that Collins was entitled to credit for her early guilty pleas.

Mr McKeever said that according to Collins, she did not intentionally spit on the manager but rather, she was very close to her and shouting so “spittle may have landed on her face because she was in close proximity.”

“It is quite disgusting to spit in anyone’s face,” Judge Broderick told Collins, “you wouldn’t like it if someone walked in through that door and spat in your face.”

The judge said he was imposing the Community Service Order of 100 hours, “rather than sending you to prison.”

In addition to the CSO and compensation order, he also imposed a two-year restraining order.