Jail term for 35-year-old Ballymena woman who 'scrabbed' her dad's face
A 35-year-old woman with 54 previous convictions who "scrabbed" her dad's face has been handed a four-month jail term.
Lesley Ann Stewart, with an address listed as Riverdale in Ballymena, appeared via video link from prison at the town's Magistrates Court on Thursday (March 19).
She pleaded guilty to assault and attempting to damage a mobile phone on March 11 this year.
On that day she had been drinking vodka for the "past couple of days" and was "abusive and aggressive towards" her father.
A prosecutor told the court that the defendant was "screaming and pulling at her own hair and then she grabbed him by his coat and scrabbed him on his face. There were no marks sustained". The defendant struck her dad's car with his mobile phone.
On February 19 this year she interfered with her dad's vehicle. She had taken her dad's car keys before taking a bank card from the vehicle and committed fraud by false representation to spend £24 on alcohol.
A defence barrister said that the defendant was an alcoholic and before the offences her father "took her back in". There had been, he added, a "settled" period before the latest offences.
He said that it was a "very sad state of affairs" and the defendant was "very sorry" for what she had done.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said that the defendant had an "extensive domestic abuse history".
As well as the four-month prison term, a two-year Restraining Order was also put in place.