A PEMBROKE pensioner with a history of bothering the police admitted assaulting a police officer when she appeared before Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Beryl Billington, of Norgans Hill, appeared frail and admitted to being hard of hearing when she took her place in the dock.

The 76-year-old has two previous cautions for assaulting an officer and one for wasting police time.

Ellie Morgan, prosecuting, said two police officers attended Billington’s address at around 4.30pm on March 30, after she called them to say she was “in pain and was unable to sit up”.

“She is known to the police,” said Ms Morgan.

“She was verbally aggressive towards the officers. They could smell alcohol on her breath and she was slurring her words.”

Ms Morgan said Billington refused the offer of an ambulance and “started shouting about her husband and his family”.

Billington’s husband – who was out when the police attended –returned home and the defendant “started shouting at him”.

PC Sasha Hashim attempted to block Billington’s path to stop her approaching her husband. The defendant pushed her, and would not stop shouting.

Paramedics arrived, checked Billington and could find “nothing of concern”.

“She was told that if she didn’t calm down, she would be arrested, but she carried on shouting and being aggressive and uncooperative,” said Ms Morgan. “She stiffened her body to stop herself being put into the police vehicle [...] and brought her hand down in a slapping motion onto PC Hashim’s chest area.”

Once in the vehicle, Billington began to stuff receipts and tissues in to her mouth, forcing officers to pull over on order to check her airways.

Mark Layton, defending, said: “In my eyes, police may have wrongly arrested my client. She has had a knee replacement. She was in enormous pain with her knee as they tried to get her in to the police car and was waving her arms about. She apologised to the officer. This was a reckless rather than a deliberate assault.”

Magistrates fined Billington £75 and ordered her to pay costs and surcharges totalling £105.