A TRAUMATISED west Cumbrian woman who had just been evicted from her home yelled in protest outside a locked council office, asking officials: “Are you human or have you all turned into machines?”

The Whitehaven woman’s ordeal was spelled out to magistrates after she pleaded guilty to using threatening behaviour.

Carlisle’s Rickergate court heard that Lorraine Fisher, 62, whose mental health problems include post traumatic stress and bipolar disorder, was thrown into crisis on September 6 when she was forced out of her home.

Desperate for help, she first visited DWP officials at the Copeland Centre in Catherine Street, Whitehaven.

Failing to realise she had left her bag at the DWP office, she then went to the town’s police station to ask for help, with the officers there noting that she was displaying 'erratic' and 'unusual' behaviour.

She was shouting about having been evicted.

The officers warned her about her behaviour and told her that it would be more appropriate for her to speak to council officials about her housing issue.

At the conclusion of her second visit to the station, Fisher began throwing personal items around near the front counter area.

As a result of this, she was asked to leave, and did so, walking away towards Catherine Street. She had now realised, the court heard, that she needed to retrieve her bag from the Coperland Centre.

She arrived there at 4.10pm, finding that the staff had locked the door. Reacting to this from outside the building, she began shouting.

Banging the door and pressing her face against the glass, she was heard to shout: “What is it to be human? Are you human or have you turned into machines?”

John Smith, defending, said Fisher’s arrest outside the Copeland Centre had been the final part of a situation that unfolded during that day, following the arrival of bailiffs at her Scotch Street home and her eviction.

After leaving the Copeland Centre, Fisher realised she had left her bag behind and wanted it back, said the lawyer.

The bag contained all of her personal documents, including her passport.

“She needed to get into the property, but they’d locked the doors,” said Mr Smith. It was a return visit to the Copeland Centre and Miss Fisher, who had threatened to kill herself, wanted to retrieve her bag.

The court heard that Fisher had been referred to Adult Social Care for 'care and support,' but officials there declined to provide this, saying that they believed her issues would be better managed by mental health agencies because of her 'increasingly delusional thoughts'.

For their part, local mental health service staff were planning to undertake a 'further assessment' with a view to Fisher being put further up a waiting list for help and support, the court heard.

After hearing the case, magistrates told Fisher that they noted that she had already spent time in custody following her arrest.

“For this reason, we are not going to fine you,” said the presiding magistrates.

The defendant was given a six month conditional discharge, which means she will not be punished provided she stays out of trouble for that period. The magistrates also declined to impose prosecution costs.

The defendant will, however, have to pay the mandatory victim surcharge, assessed as being £26. The name of the defendant's landlord involved in the eviction was not revealed during the hearing.

The defendant now has no fixed address.