A SHEEPRIDGE woman spat in the mouth of a police officer after he was called to help break up her fight with a neighbour.

Sarah Brewins yelled that she was going to going to “batter” her neighbour’s daughter after she made nasty comments about her dead child.

She spat in the constable’s mouth as he tried to bring her under control.

Kirklees magistrates were yesterday told that Brewins, of Sheepridge Grove, had enjoyed a good relationship with her long-standing next door neighbour.

But problems arose when the woman’s daughter came to live at the house.

The Huddersfield bench was told that over the last few months Brewins had received complaints about loud music coming from her house.

In turn the 37-year-old had been upset by comments from the neighbour’s daughter about her child who died 12 years ago and other children who had been taken into care.

Marina Hunter-Taylor, prosecuting, said that on May 30 police arrived at Sheepridge Grove to break up the argument between occupants of the two properties.

The prosecutor said: “The defendant came out of the house into the garden and shouted abuse at the officers.

“She was waving her arms about and members of the public walking past appeared distressed by her behaviour.

“She was shouting in an aggressive manner over the garden fence, she said: ‘I’m going to batter her.’

Ms Hunter-Taylor said that one of the officers then tried to arrest Brewins for being in breach of the peace.

She said: “He took hold of her arm to handcuff her, she spat at him and the spittle hit his face and the inside of his mouth.

“The officer said this distressed him. She continued to shout abuse and the officer wiped his face which was covered in spittle.”

Magistrates were told that Brewins continued to shout in the custody area of the police station following her arrest.

She admitted assaulting a police constable in the execution of his duty.

They heard that she had 12 previous convictions.

These included an assault over a bottle of sherry for which Brewins was handed a community order with alcohol treatment in April.

Jonathan Slawinski, mitigating on behalf of Brewins, said that she had longstanding problems with drink, depression and self-harm.

He said: “The neighbour’s daughter made some very nasty statements about her child who died and her other children.

“That fuelled the fire that led to the calling of the police to calm the situation down.

“Sarah was so angry at the comments, (but) she said in interview it was extremely rude and inappropriate for her to behave like that.”

Mr Slawinski added that Brewins was hurt where the officer grabbed her arm because she had knife injuries there.

Magistrates revoked her existing court order and replaced it with a 12-month community order with an alcohol treatment requirement for six months.

They also ordered her to pay £50 compensation to the police officer and £85 towards court costs.