Mum attacked police believing they were impostors who’d come to kill her

A woman who attacked a police officer has walked free after a court heard she was in the grip of a mental health ‘crisis’ and believed she was about to be kidnapped and murdered.

Police were called to 26-year-old mum-of-two Ashleigh Marsh’s address in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, last month after receiving calls about someone ‘screaming and shouting in the street’.

The court heard she became ‘irate’ during the check-up and ‘put her left foot into the chest’ of a female officer, leading to her arrest.

Heather Bell, prosecuting, said Marsh had been ‘running up and down saying “Who is there?” and acting erratically’.

‘The defendant was assessed by paramedics and it was deemed that she did have capacity,’ Ms Bell continued.

‘They urged her to go to hospital for observation due to her erratic behaviour but she did not want to go to the hospital. She wanted to stay at her mother’s house but there were children there and it was not appropriate for her to stay there due to her erratic behaviour.

‘She was walked to the police vehicle but as she got in she started being extremely irate and became convinced the officers were trying to kill her. She seems to have seen a shovel in the boot and thought that they were going to kill her and bury her.

The court heard Marsh began to ‘flail around’, with one officer saying it looked like she was in ‘fight or flight’ mode.

‘They were taking her out of the police vehicle when the defendant put her left foot into the chest of PC Potter,’ Ms Bell added.

The court heard officers took her from the car onto the ground, where she continued to resist arrest and lash out with her legs.

No officers were injured.

When interviewed by police, Marsh admitted taking drugs a week before after suffering a bout of sleepless nights.

She denied suffering mental health problems but said she ‘genuinely believed that they were not the police and were going to kill her and bury her’ and said ‘sorry for the assault’, prosecutors added.

The court heard Marsh’s eldest daughter, who is seven, has severe learning disabilities.

Catherine Davies, defending, said: ‘That puts pressure on the family – and they cannot have a normal family days out. Miss Marsh finds it really really hard to cope and as a result of that she struggled with sleep.

‘On that weekend there was a build up with emotions and a decline in her mental health.’

Marsh ‘did actually say that she had mental health issues – but it was only after the interview’, Ms Davies added.

‘She has never behaved like this before. It was completely out of character. It was just all far too much. She could not cope any more. She is a young lady feeling very lost at the moment.

‘She did not deliberately hit out. She was having a crisis.’

Marsh, who had no prior convictions, pleaded guilty at Chester Magistrates Court to assaulting a police officer in the execution of their duty.

She was conditionally discharged for 12 months and ordered to pay £111 in costs and a surcharge.

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