A CALDERSTONES patient pulled a car seatbelt around a care worker’s neck as she was driving them back to the Whalley establishment and screamed that she wanted her to crash the car so they would all die.

Blackburn magistrates heard when a second care worker who was in the car tried to intervene she was hit several times in the face but it allowed the driver to bring the car to a halt safely.

Bethany Thomas, 21, pleaded guilty to three charges of assaulting staff. She was ordered to pay each one £80 compensation.

Adrian Hollamby, prosecuting, said the two female support workers were escorting Thomas on a visit to see her father.

After leaving she was sitting in the back of the car behind the driver. She suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the seatbelt and pulled it around her neck.

She shouted: “I want to kill you, I want you to crash the car, I want us all to die.”

After the car stopped Thomas ran off but was found and detained nearby, the court heard.

The third assault happened at Calderstones when Thomas took a care assistant’s phone and said she was going to make a prank call to the police. She refused to give the phone back and when the assistant pressed an alarm Thomas pulled her scarf over her head and started banging her head against the wall.

Christine Rolls, defending, said her client knew what she had done was wrong. “She doesn’t always think ahead to what might happen as a result of her actions,” said Miss Rolls. “What she did in the car could have been very dangerous.”