A WOMAN shouted abuse at a ‘vulnerable’ man who lost a limb in the Derrick Bird shootings, cruelly telling him the gunman ‘should have finished him off’, a court heard.

Charlotte Jones, 40, was intoxicated as she yelled at the victim in the street triggering the anxiety he suffered as a result of the tragedy on June 2, 2010.

Bird killed twelve people and injured eleven others in a shooting spree in West Cumbria before he killed himself in a wooded area after abandoning his car in the village of Boot.

(Image: Submitted)

She pleaded guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress, when she appeared before Workington Magistrates’ Court.

Prosecutor Pamela Fee said the victim was outside fixing a trailer with a friend in Whitehaven on May 22 when he heard Jones shouting from her doorstep.

She continued shouting for a few minutes and the victim and his friend ignored her. She then shouted that ‘Derrick Bird should have killed you rather than just shooting your arm off’, said the prosecutor.

She repeated what she said.

Jones was told to get back in the house. She told the victim that she was going to ‘punch his lights out’ and strangle him, it was heard. The victim and his friend then put the tools away and drove away.

A statement read to the court from the victim said he had suffered from anxiety since the Derrick Bird shootings and this incident had ‘set him off again’. 

He said Jones, who was ‘highly intoxicated’ at the time, was ‘up for a fight’ and the incident had distressed him, causing him to leave in the car.

Jones was interviewed by police and admitted the offence. She said she made the comments because he shouted derogatory names towards her.

Jones said the victim ‘did not understand how his words could hurt her’. She said she had stopped drinking since June.

She ‘couldn’t remember’ the incident because of alcohol and said she was ‘completely mortified’.

Ms Fee said the victim was ‘vulnerable’ as a result of the incident with Derrick Bird and the offence had triggered his anxiety in respect of the shootings.

The defendant was currently subject to a community order imposed by the crown court.

Katie Scattergood, defending, said: “There is a slight dispute in the words being used. She accepts saying Derrick Bird should have done us a favour and finished you off.

“She has entered her guilty plea on that basis.”

Miss Scattergood said there was a history between the parties and abusive comments had been made by the victim since September last year. She said Jones had not responded until this occasion.

Miss Scattergood said: “Charlotte accepts the comment was unacceptable in the circumstances.

“She is remorseful. She is a vulnerable female. The vulnerabilities are exacerbated by alcohol misuse.

“Since the date of the offence, she has been sentenced to a crown court community order. She’s been engaging well with the Probation Service.”

Magistrates imposed a 12-month conditional order of discharge and ordered to Jones to pay £85 costs and a £26 victim surcharge.

After being sentenced, Jones told the court: “I’m just really remorseful that I caused [the victim] PTSD. I suffer from it myself. I just want to be alcohol-free.

“I don’t want to keep being in this vicious cycle.”