A woman hit a defenceless man on the head with a hammer after he had been knocked to the ground during a fight outside James Lee House in Warrington, a court heard.
The victim, Alan Jenks, had been floored during a fight with an unknown man and Nicola Fargin then joined in the attack with the red-handled weapon.
After the attack outside James Lee House, she threw the hammer away by a nearby Lidl refrigeration unit but it was later recovered by police.
James Lee House
She was arrested but had to be taken to hospital as she said she had taken an overdose, said Paul Wood, prosecuting.
Police spoke to Mr Jenks outside Warrington Hospital and saw he had a one-centimetre cut to the top of his head.
“When asked what had happened he said he did not want to make a formal complaint about the incident and said he could not remember what had happened to him or caused the injury.”
Later the same day, June 26, police went to James Lee House and recovered CCTV footage which showed Mr Jenks squaring up to the other man and Fargin joining in.
Fargin, of Bell House Road, Widnes, pleaded guilty to affray and possessing an offensive weapon, a hammer, in a public place.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today (Mon) that the defendant has 58 previous convictions for 122 offences.
Kimberley Obrusik, defending, said that Fargin “accepts she went too far and no weapon should have been used. She was shocked by the CCTV footage of her behaviour.”
She explained that the defendant suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as “a number of years ago one she was present when one of her friends was beaten to death and as a result reacted in a clearly inappropriate way in these circumstances.”
Miss Obrusik said, “She has suffered from drugs and alcohol addiction since she was 12.”
She has been to prison before but her four months on remand in custody has been her longest drug and alcohol-free period and she wants to maintain that.
Urging the judge not to impose an immediate jail sentence she said that Fargin has matured in the last two years and added, “Since 2017 all the sentences have been prison sentences, it is an on-going cycle.”
Jailing her for 15 months Judge Brian Cummings, KC, said, “It was a serious injury in the context of an affray charge. You were by your own admission under the influence of alcohol and drugs and you have a number of previous convictions for offences of violence.”
He said it was too serious for any other than an immediate jail sentence. “By the time you hit him with the hammer, he was already on the ground having been knocked over by someone else.”
