Boston woman scratched and bit police officers who tried to arrest her

Hayley Birks, 35, of Puritan Way admitted assaulting Maria Ribeiro by beating and also similar offences against PC Nikitina and SC Jeffery when she appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court.

The court was told that late in the evening of November 24, Birks and a man woke up her neighbours by playing loud music and dancing outside their flats in Puritan Way and when she saw one of them, Ms Ribeiro, she shouted at her to turn her lights off and stop photographing them.

She then went over to Ms Ribeiro and lashed out at her through the open ground floor window, scratching her face.

The two police officers went to her flat early the following morning with the intention of arresting her for assault on Ms Ribeiro where they found her very intoxicated and refusing to engage with them.

It was said she kicked out and struck PB Nikitina’s legs and in the struggle that followed, she twice bit SC Jeffery’s leg through her work trousers.

Mitigating, Matthew Tye said Birks suffered from schizophrenia and had been sectioned for 14 days last September.

He said she felt she was having a mental health breakdown at the time of this incident.

After a report from the Probation Service, the magistrates imposed a 12 month community order and ordered her to undergo 10 rehabilitation days and to observe an electronically monitored curfew between the hours of 7pm and 7am.

She was also ordered to pay £100 compensation to each of the three victims of the assaults and a total of £180 in court costs and charges.