An infant girl was "left traumatised" after being hit with a piece of glass and spat at during a chaotic altercation in her home.
Elizabeth Sterrett, 23, was jailed for four months on Thursday at Lisburn Magistrates Court, after pleading guilty to the incident in September 2019, where she also spat and kicked police officers.
The mother of the girl, who was only 14-months-old at the time, says she has been left terrified by the incident and becomes scared at hearing the slightest noise in her home.
The court heard that on the night in question, Sterrett had spat and thrown glasses from an apartment onto a balcony where the infant was being held in the arms of her mother.
Upon the arrival of the police, Sterrett was unable to be located in the block of flats and was found a short time later by police officers. During her arrest she kicked one in the chest and spat at another.
Later during questioning Sterrett denied the offences but later admitted them at a court hearing on Tuesday, February 16.
The incident took place while Sterrett was on bail and awaiting trial for another assault offence which she was convicted of in December 2019.
Her defence lawyer said that there was "never any excuse for spitting" but the incident had taken place before the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that Sterrett had been distressed at the time of the incident and had been in a bad place due to health problems with her infant son.
They said: "To her credit, since the incident Ms Sterrett has not committed any further offences."
Imposing the four month sentence on Sterrett, District Judge Watters said: "There is nothing other than an immediate custodial sentence today that we could impose in relation to this, taking into consideration that there was a plea but it was fairly late in the day and after an awful lot of delay, some caused by the prosecution but by the defence as well.”
The mother of the young girl says that her daughter has been left badly shaken by the incident and "comes running to her everytime she hears a noise in the house".
She said: "Since this happened my daughter is scared to go near the balcony of our apartment and jumps at hearing the slightest bang.
"Anytime she hears a noise in the house she will come running to me and for months afterwards she was having trouble sleeping.
"I am trying to raise my daughter right and focus on my education and career, and I really wish all of this had never happened. My daughter shouldn't be traumatised because of someone losing the plot.
"I think that it is crazy that she has only got four months considering she has also admitted assaulting the police, but hopefully she learns from this."
