Scarborough woman who spat at police officers and hurled abuse at them jailed after string of drunken incidents

Nina Smith, 41, spat at officers, hurled vile abuse at them and attacked a health worker during another drunken tirade at Scarborough Hospital.

She was subject to a criminal behaviour order at the time which banned her from drinking in public and causing harassment or distress to others, York Crown Court heard.

She was also on a suspended jail sentence for threatening to stab a prison officer “in the guts” when she began continually flouting the order over a three-month period, said prosecutor Elizabeth Noble.

The flurry of offences began on the morning of November 17 last year when a police officer spotted Smith drinking from a can of strong lager in Market Street, Scarborough.

Smith, who was drunk and “dishevelled”, began shouting and swearing at the officer who arrested her for breaching the criminal behaviour order.

She was put in the back of a police van where she continued to rant and rave and shout insults at the officers and members of the public.

She then spat at the officers before being escorted to the police station.

Smith, of Hoxton Road, was bailed but on New Year’s Day, she had gone into Scarborough Hospital at complaining of chest pains at about midday.

Medical staff advised her not to smoke following a test which revealed low oxygen levels, but she duly went out for a cigarette while supping from a can of lager.

“At about 3pm, her behaviour worsened (and) she refused to co-operate with medical staff,” said Ms Noble.

“She became angry, flailing her arms around (and) the medical staff retreated from the room.”

Two other health workers walked in and tried to calm her down, only to be met with a torrent of four-letter abuse.

Smith struck the male health worker in the stomach “a number of times”, which winded him but didn’t leave any lasting injury.

He was forced to retreat from the room.

On February 19, police received a call from a social worker asking them to remove a woman from a block of flats in Sussex Street.

When officers arrived, the social worker said Smith had “threatened to bash her head in”.

Officers went to a flat and told Smith to go home, but she hurled foul-mouthed abuse at them and refused to leave, telling one officer: “I will smack you in the mouth”.

She was eventually persuaded to leave, but deliberately walked in the opposite direction to her home. She was duly arrested again.

Once in custody, Smith became abusive and “threatened to slash officers with a blade and knock them out”, said Ms Noble.

Smith, who was calling the officers “uneducated”, told one constable she had Coronavirus and threatened to spit at him.

She admitted six counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order and one count of assaulting an emergency worker which was in breach of a suspended sentence.

She appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday after being remanded in Low Newton women’s prison.

The court heard that Smith had 73 previous convictions for 156 offences, including “numerous” assaults on emergency workers and breaching court orders.

The suspended sentence of which she was also in breach was handed down at Durham Crown Court in November last year for threats to kill.

Nick Peacock, for Smith, said she was an alcoholic “and that’s her real problem”.

“Until she controls her alcohol problem and her drug issues, this defendant will be before (the courts) again and again and again,” he added.

Judge Sean Morris condemned Smith for her “bad record” and told her: “The reason you keep breaching criminal behaviour orders is clearly because you are an alcoholic.

“It seems to me that what is required for your good health and mental health, and your future safety, is a period of abstinence.”

Smith was jailed for two years, of which she will serve half behind bars before being released on licence.

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