Hucknall woman couldn’t remember why she smashed care home door with bench

Rebecca Cresswell picked up the bench after kicking a double-glazed door at Leen Valley Care Home, on Nottingham Road, on September 26, said prosecutor Daniel Pietryka.

When one resident jammed the door shut with their foot, Creswell, aged 43, left the entrance area and smashed a ground floor bedroom window at the supported accommodation for vulnerable people.

She later told police ‘someone in the building was winding her up, but couldn't remember what was said or who said it’.

She was 'well in drink' at the time, said Mr Pietryka, but accepted she shouldn't have behaved in this way after seeing CCTV footage of the incident.

The offence put Creswell in breach of a conditional discharge imposed by Nottingham magistrates, in April, for threatening a woman in September last year.

Pars Samrai, mitigating, said: "She says it was a nasty incident when she sobered up and was told about it. She is very remorseful.

"I have said this before and I'll say it again. It's difficult to reconcile the person I represent in court with the person who behaves like this.

"What she says to me, in a very pleasant and courteous way, is that she has these demons and needs to conquer them."

Mr Samrai said Cresswell is struggling to cope with the medication she takes for post-traumatic stress disorder, and self-medicates with alcohol and amphetamine.

He said she drank more in an effort to wean herself off the amphetamine and became more vulnerable.

“She can't remember the exact reasons she had been taunted,” Mr Samrai said. “When she is in a vulnerable state she is picked on and made fun of.”

While she is not completely abstinent she has been cutting back, he added.

Creswell, care of Brixham Road, Hucknall, admitted criminal damage when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on November 16.

On Wednesday she received an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, with a six-month alcohol treatment programme and 20 rehabilitation days. She was ordered to pay a £154 surcharge and £85 court costs.