Mum avoids jail after drink-fuelled stiletto attack on a father at school

A MOTHER who battered another parent over the head with her stiletto heel when she turned up drunk to collect her children from primary school has avoided jail.

Emma Harrington, 30, began arguing with the father in the reception area when he came out of a toilet she had been waiting to use.

The court heard she told him she could smell cannabis in the cubicle and called him a ‘junkie’, while he told her to ‘go back to working in a lap-dancing club’, at which point she slapped him in the face.

After a tussle, she took off her metal-tipped stiletto shoe and ‘charged’ at him, causing wounds to his head and hands.

North Staffordshire Justice Centre was told that teachers at Eaton Park Academy, in Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ushered children away from the area as the row escalated into violence.

Harrington, who was convicted of assaulting a police officer last year and takes a drug for the treatment of heroin addiction, then used her shoe to damage a door inside the building, causing £400 of damage. She pleaded guilty to assault by beating and criminal damage.

The court heard how Harrington, from Stoke-on-Trent – who turned up to the hearing in a blue dress and wearing red stiletto shoes – had been drinking before going to the school at 3pm. Prosecutor Giles Rowden said: ‘The incident was recorded on CCTV. The defendant can be seen to attack the complainant with her stiletto heel. He described it as being charged at. The point [of the heel] contacted with his eyebrow causing a cut and also to his hands, which he was using to defend himself.’

Simon Dykes, defending, said the attack by Harrington, who is unemployed, was ‘out of character’. He added: ‘Miss Harrington is desperate for help. She has not only been using alcohol but has been misusing [heroin substitute] Subutex. That combined with drinking has led to the problem.’

Magistrates handed Harrington a 12-month community order, with a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement. She must also pay a £100 fine and £1,100 compensation to the school.