A woman has avoided prison after she ‘lost the plot’ and attacked and racially abused Poundland staff who suspected her of shoplifting.
Elaine Clark, 41, was on a shopping trip to Aberdeen with a friend on October 31 last year when she became “extremely hostile and aggressive” after being stopped by security at the discount store on Union Street.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Clark immediately began being racist to the security guard, calling him “a monkey”, before punching him in the face.
As other staff intervened to help, Clark bit one of them and headbutted and took a bite of the other.
She then made further racist comments in the presence of police.
Clark pleaded guilty to three charges of assault and one of acting in a racially aggressive manner.
Accused bit staff during racist and violent attack
Fiscal depute Alan Townsend told the court how Clark had erupted with rage upon being stopped by the Poundland security and was caught on CCTV punching the man to the temple before raining blows down on his body.
He said: “One staff member attempted to restrain her to prevent anyone else from being assaulted but she bit her on the back of the hand.
“The guard asked another male employee for his assistance and he restrained her by the arms waiting for the police to attend. She headbutted him to the left eye, causing him to recoil.
“Still in his grasp, she then immediately bit him in the middle finger of his right hand and repeatedly kicked him to the shin and foot.”
Police arrived soon after and arrested Clark for assault.
Under caution, and without prompt, she stated to police: “I’ll get all five of them, including the black b*****d. I don’t care if there was CCTV.”
She overreacted
Defence agent Declan O’Keefe told the court the 41-year old had become angry about being stopped by guards as she was worried she might miss her bus back to Fraserburgh.
He said his client understood that her behaviour was “unacceptable” and that she had “totally overreacted to the situation”.
Mr O’Keefe added: “She had been doing clothes shopping around Aberdeen, but she had to get the bus back to Fraserburgh so she went to find her friend in Poundland.
“She ran into the shop, found her friend, tells her essentially to hurry up as they’re going to miss the bus and as they run out of the store she is then confronted by a security guard who has obviously made the assumption that she is shoplifting.
“She is someone who sufferers from extreme anxiety and – there is no other way to say it – at this point, she loses the plot.”
‘Prison is at the forefront of my mind’
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Clark that she was facing “a very serious set of offences”.
She added: “It is significantly aggravated by the racist comments that you made to a security officer and about him.
“I have been really seriously considering whether or not the only option was a custodial sentence, and it is something that is very much at the forefront of my mind.
“These are nasty assaults and displaying that kind of racist attitude makes things much worse.”
As an alternative to prison, Sheriff McLaughlin sentenced Clark, of Linds Brae, Fraserburgh, to a community payback order with two years supervision and ordered her to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.
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