A CARER from Accrington who attacked a 14-year-old girl after a long-standing dispute, leaving her with two black eyes, has been warned she only narrowly escaped a jail sentence.

Two teenage friends were walking along Burnley Road in January, having been to a fish and chip shop, when one of them was racially abused and threatened with a taser by a man, so they ran off, Burnley Crown Court was told.

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Shortly afterwards the girls were confronted by Gemma Smith, the man’s partner, who grabbed hold of one of them, dragging her across a road and slapping her, while pulling her by the hair.

Meanwhile the second girl ran off to fetch her friend’s father.

Sara Dodds, prosecuting, said Smith later continued the attack, grabbing her by her clothing and forcing her back against a wall, before the victim’s father arrived on the scene and intervened.

The court heard that as the father drove past he is said to have thrown a glass at Smith, which missed. But she threw the object back, causing a dent to the vehicle as it departed.

Mother-of-one Smith, 26, of Nuttall Street, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing at Blackburn Magistrates Court to two offences of common assault and criminal damage.

She was committed to the crown court for sentence after it emerged that she was in breach of a 16-month suspended sentence order, imposed at the same venue in May 2015 for an offence of burglary.

Marianne Alton, defending, said that there had been a long-running dispute between the girl and her client, who was “remorseful and regretted” her behaviour on the day in question.

Smith acted as a carer for her partner, who suffered from schizophrenia. She also told the court that it would be “unjust” to activate the suspended sentence as her earlier offending was for an unrelated matter and Smith had kept out of trouble for some time.

Passing sentence, Recorder Ashworth said: “It is fair to say you have had difficulties in your life but to strike a 14-year-old girl on several occasions must have been terrifying for her and caused injuries including black eyes, which is completely and utterly unacceptable.”

Smith was given a 12-month community order, with 12 months’ supervision, a rehabilitation activity requirement and a £150 fine.