A WOMAN spat at police after slapping an 87-year-old and knocking her to the ground outside a Coventry shop – and trying to rob another pensioner’s handbag.
When she was arrested Kirsty Burchell tried to spit in the face on one of the officers, who managed to turn his head away, a judge at Warwick Crown Court has heard.
Burchell (31) of Faulkner House, Stoney Stanton Road, Coventry, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to theft, robbery and two charges of common assault.
Prosecutor Ian Speed said that at around lunchtime on November 16, Burchell went into a convenience store in Avon Street, Stoke, Coventry.
She picked up a bottle of vodka and put it into her bag before trying to leave without paying for it, becoming aggressive towards the shopkeeper when she was challenged.
Once outside, a public-spirited man who had seen what had happened intervened and got the bottle back off Burchell and returned it.
An 87-year-old woman had been shopping in the store at the time, and was nervous about leaving while Burchell was outside – so she stayed until it was believed the coast was clear.
But once she got outside, she was confronted by Burchell who demanded to know what she was looking at and slapped her to the face, knocking her to the ground.
About an hour later a 67-year-old woman was walking towards the Nat West bank in Foleshill Road when Burchell came up to her and grabbed the straps of her handbag.
The woman put up a struggle to keep hold of it, and eventually Burchell stopped tugging and snatched her glasses off her face before making off with them.
Seeing what had happened, a couple went to the woman’s assistance and they contacted the police before following Burchell with the victim in their car until the police arrived and they were able to point her out.
Burchell began screaming after being arrested and put into a police car, and when an officer tried to speak to her to calm her down, she tried to spit in his face.
But he managed to turn away, and the spit hit the back of his head instead, said Mr Speed, who pointed out that Burchell had previous convictions for such behaviour towards the police.
When she was interviewed, Burchell said she had gone into the shop to buy alcohol, but had forgotten her bank card, and she claimed she ‘wouldn’t rob an old woman’ and denied spitting at the officer.
Simon Burch, defending, said Burchell, who had ‘a great degree of psychotic symptoms, and instances of paranoia and hallucinations,’ could not explain why she would want someone’s glasses.
Jailing Burchell, Judge Anthony Potter told her: “In that shop was an 87-year-old retired lady who was simply doing her shopping.
“I have to bear her and other shoppers in mind when I consider the way you behaved thereafter. Although she did her best to avoid you, when she left the store you sought a confrontation with her.
“She was no threat to you in any sense, and you approached her and were verbally aggressive and slapped her with sufficient force that you knocked that 87-year-old to the floor. You are very fortunate she suffered only bruising to her face.
“Shortly afterwards you approached another retired lady and without provocation you let lose a tirade of vile abuses and grabbed her handbag, and when she would not give it up, in frustration you grabbed her glasses.”
