A 54-year-old Newent woman who assaulted a police officer and sent nuisance messages over a three day period last month has been ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work for the community.

At Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court, Lucy Nicholls, of May Hill View, pleaded guilty to assaulting PC Humphries, on November 14 by beating him.

She also admitted persistently using the public electronic communications network between November 12 and 14 to cause annoyance.

As well as sentencing her to 100 hours unpaid work on each of the two charges, the court made a one year community order with a condition to have treatment for alcohol dependency.

She was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the officer.