A woman who repeatedly kicked a pregnant woman after dragging her to the ground in a “vicious, unprovoked assault” narrowly avoided being sent to prison.
Instead, Laurie Jane Brown, 26, of Craigmore Street, was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order by Sheriff Alastair Brown.
Brown admitted that on September 28, at Brown Street, she assaulted the woman who was then pregnant, grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to the ground, then repeatedly kicked her on the head and body to her injury.
Depute fiscal Laura Bruce told the court the complainer was on a work night out and had been in Duke’s Corner.
The group were leaving the premises and when they were in Brown Street the accused was refused entry because she was under the influence of alcohol.
As the group walked past her a comment was made by one of them and the accused reacted.
She crossed the road and grabbed the complainer by the hair and then threw her to the ground and kicked her on the head and body.
Eventually a male friend of the complainer restrained Brown on the ground, allowing the victim to get to her feet.
The accused and a friend then got into a taxi and drove off, but the group took down the taxi’s details and called police, who traced the taxi in a nearby street and stopped it. Brown was arrested and taken to Bell Street HQ.
Solicitor Kevin Hampton said Brown had very little recollection of events that night.
Pointing out that she had two previous convictions for assault, he nevertheless appealed for a community-based disposal as she was a single parent with a seven-year-old son.
Sheriff Brown asked Mr Hampton if the accused had made any arrangements for the care of her son if he sent her to prison and told her: “Your son can be taken into care it won’t be good for him but it can happen.
“This was a completely unprovoked, vicious assault, kicking somebody in the head, it turns out the lady was pregnant, you didn’t know that but you take the victim as you see them.
“The only reason I’m not sending you to prison is that your record shows you haven’t had a community payback order before.”