A doctor whose life spiralled into drug and alcohol addiction has been jailed for 14 months for a street attack on a stranger.
Sophie Robbins pulled out clumps of a woman’s hair in Edinburgh’s Leith Walk after targeting her in an unprovoked assault.
Robbins, 42, then spat on a police officer and kicked him while he was driving her to the station following her arrest.
Sentencing her, Sheriff Nigel Ross said Robbins’ fall from a promising medical career was a “bleak story”.
The city’s sheriff court heard on Thursday how Robbins nearly died in 2006 as a trainee doctor when she was stabbed in her bed by a jealous partner.
Stewart Smith, who was convicted of attempted murder, knifed her in a drunken rage with Robbins losing two litres of blood and part of her lung.
The court heard this incident was the beginning of a “tragic story” of addiction and offending for the former medic.
Robbins appeared via video link from HMP Greenock and admitted two charges of assault.
Fiscal depute Aidan Higgins said victim Livia Prendi, a 31-year-old support worker, was heading towards a bus stop on Leith Walk at around 5pm on March 18.
Mr Higgins said: “Without any warning, and to her surprise, she was grabbed by the accused.
“The accused grabbed her by the hair and started to pull her around the street.”
The prosecutor said Livia was “screaming for help” and passersby came to her aid, managing to pull Robbins away.
Mr Higgins said Robbins “tore out a number of clumps” of Livia’s hair and the victim’s glasses were smashed.
He added: “She had never seen the accused before and had no idea why she was attacked in this way.”
The court heard Livia endured a “very painful and terrifying” assault.
Pc Craig McCall drove Robbins to St Leonards police station after her arrest at the scene, Mr Higgins said.
He said Robbins spat in the constable’s face and kicked his body from the backseat as he drove, prompting him to stop the vehicle.
Defence agent Ruairidh Mulheron said his client had only been released from prison on January 28 after serving a 14-month sentence for assault and had been “isolated” and “relapsed to drink”.
Mr Mulheron said Robbins had been a doctor in a children’s hospital but “various factors got in the way and she had to leave”. The solicitor said Robbins descended into drug and alcohol addiction while her previous offending was mostly for dishonesty and breach of the peace.
He said the “trigger event” was the 2006 knife attack she suffered which left Robbins at “death’s door”, adding: “It’s a tragic story as far as she’s concerned”.
Mr Mulheron said Robbins had “very little or no recollection” of the assault on Livia, whom she’d never met, and was “regretful”.
He added Robbins planned to move away from Edinburgh upon her release to make a “fresh start” as she realised she was going to “end up in prison for the rest of her life or dead”.
Jailing her, Sheriff Ross said it was a “bleak story” where Robbins had come from a “professional background” before “descending into assault and serious disorder”.
In 2007 Stewart Smith, then 41, was jailed for six years and nine months at the High Court in Edinburgh and told Robbins he was “sorry” as he was led to the cells.
Smith admitted attempting to murder Robbins on September 4 2006 at Rothesay Place in Edinburgh’s West End.
