A CARLISLE mum involved in a row over an open car door which blocked a pavement reacted badly, pushing the taxi driver involved.

Charlotte Fell, 33, who also yelled a racial slur at the man, later said she was disgusted with her reaction but on the day in question she had visited her mum’s grave and suffered “something of a breakdown.”

The defendant, of Prescott Road, Longsowerby, pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated common assault.

The city’s Rickergate court heard that Fell was walking along the pavement on the street where she lives when she encountered an open taxi door, which was blocking her route along the pavement. 

After a verbal exchange with the taxi driver, who did not close the door, she “pushed” him, the court heard. She also used a racial slur. The man was not injured.

A probation worker who interviewed Fell said that her version of the incident was that she had “politely” asked the taxi driver two or three times to close the door but he and the second person who was in the car ignored her.

The man had first looked away, then got out of the car and said something to her, though she could not recall what. “This seems to have been the trigger,” said the probation officer, leading to the push.

Fell had then continued walking along the pavement.

The probation officer said: “She does not know why she reacted as she did and she says she’s disgusted with herself. She said she should not have said what she said and behaved in that way.

“She deeply regrets it.”

A past survivor of domestic violence, the defendant was still suffering from trauma relating to that experience. Four years ago, her mother had passed away and this had a significant impact on her.

Regarding the racially aggravated element of the offence, Fell had family contacts who were of Pakistani origin, and she had no deep-seated racial feelings that needed to be considered, added the officer.

Chris Toms, defending, said: “She was having something of a breakdown that day; she’d visited her mum’s grave for the first time and the state of mind she was in meant she was unable to deal with confrontation.

“To put it colloquially, she lost it.”

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order, with 10 rehabilitation activity days, a £50 fine, £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge.