A PSYCHATRIC patient repeatedly assaulted nursing staff and police officers - but she was spared punishment after a judge heard she was having a breakdown.

It was triggered by the death of the brother, the person she described as "her rock," Carlisle Crown Court heard. Wigton woman Cheryl Hickman, 57, who has never been in trouble before, pleaded guilty to admitted 24.

Among her crimes were an actual bodily harm assault and three racially aggravated offences, which included two assaults by beating.

She admitted 21 assaults by beating, the actual bodily harm offence, and two disorderly behaviour offences. Of the three racially aggravated offences, two were instances of threatening or disorderly behaviour.

One assault was on a fellow patient. Prosecutor Rachel Woods outlined the facts.

She described how the defendant committed the offences over seven days in October last year while she was being kept at the Hadrian Unite of Carlisle’s Carleton Clinic, where she was being treated for

The assaults – mostly on medical staff – involved kicking, scratching, hair pulling and punching.  

The actual bodily harm assault happened on October 19 when Hickman, who had been acting aggressively, scratched a nursing assistant’s arm, drawing blood. The prosecutor said one of the assaults was at Durranhill Police HQ.

“An officer had helped her with her shoelaces and as they were at the custody desk, for no apparent reason, the defendant suddenly punched the officer to the face on the nose,” said Ms Woods.

On another occasion, at the Carleton Clinic, the defendant racially abused a doctor who was walking past her.

Matthew Hopkins, defending, said Hickman began her life attending a special school and she suffered from asthma, diabetes, and autism, and she had suffered episodes of depression.

The barrister said: “Despite all of these disadvantages, she has attended college and had work placements. It was the death of her brother which appears to have been the trigger for this completely aberrant behaviour.

“She describes him as her rock and when he passed away, she suffered what can only be described as a mental breakdown. She was suffering adjustment disorder, brought on by the traumatic loss of her brother.”

Judge Michael Fanning said: “These are really unpleasant offences – spitting at people who are there to help you; kicking people who are there to help you; racially abusing people who are there to help you.

“But this is out of character; you have never been in trouble before.” Noting that Hickman was being well supported in the community, the judge said he did not expect her to behave in that way again.

For most of the offences, he imposed a conditional discharge, while for the racially aggravated offences he imposed a six-month conditional discharge.

That means that if the defendant, of Skiddaw View, Wigton, does not reoffend over the next sis months, she will not be punished.